Page 209 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

206 ART AND CRAFTS

scripts, from right to left. The fonts were large. The reason behind printing in large font
was to make it convenient for rural readers with very little literacy under the scant light
of the oil-lamp. The covers of these texts were printed on white or colored paper with
borders of creeper and leaf motif. However, in publications of Dhaka’s Ketabpatti there
seemed to have been no use of illustration similar to that of Kolkata’s Bat-tala. 32
In 1854, the first art school was established in Kolkata on private initiative. In 1864,
this became the Government Art School. Here training was imparted on etching,
engraving, lithograph etc. In fact, the British established these art-training institutes in
this country to serve their own purpose. This British Victorian style education system
had a widespread influence on the publication industry of this country especially on
book-cover and illustration.
The introduction and development of lithography is an important event of the 19th
century and the history of graphic design in Bangladesh. Although lithography came
to this country with two Frenchmen in 1822, the first litho press owned by a Bengali
was established in Kolkata in 1829. It was called Shura Pathuria Press. However, we
do not get any example of publication from this press today. We only know the
existence of this press through an advertisement published in a magazine. However,
33
in the latter half of the 19th century lithography became popular in Kolkata and the
artists trained in Government Art School had a role to play in this regard. Among
them, Annada Prasad Bagchi (1849-1905) should be mentioned with special emphasis.
fig. 4.12 Annada Prasad Annada Prasad was famous primarily for book illustration. Among his works, Sir
Bagchi, Antiquities of Joseph Fayrer’s famous book Thanatophidia of India (1872) and Rajendra Lala
Orissa, Plate IV Mitra’s Antiquities of Orissa (1875, 80) and Bodh Gaya (1878) are most significant
(fig. 4.12). In 1876 Annada Prasad established ‘Calcutta Art Studio’in Boubazar Street
of Calcutta. Later, four more artists joined the studio in 1878. 34
Following this trend, a few more art studios were established in
the 70s and 80s. These studios were controlled primarily by
former students of Government Art School who used to work in
book design and illustration in lithography.
It is difficult to get any copy of the earlier editions of
Vidyasagar’s Barno Porichoy published in the 19th century, the
1st part in April 1855 and the 2nd part in June 1855. The same
goes for the book Kathamala published in 1856. We do not
know what was on the cover. But from the receiver edition
published in 1929 it can be assumed that to save the cost of
blocks, the famous picture of the crow and the fox, which was
printed inside the book was used on the cover. 35
A few years later, a special kind of book arrived where the
cover had the title and the writer’s name embossed on it in
brilliant golden or silver-colored letters instead of any
illustration. Michael’s book of sonnets had a similar kind of
cover - a green cover with golden border.