What is the contribution of the Serampore mission press to extend printing press in India?
Answers
Answer:
It began operations on January 10, 1800. The British government, highly suspicious of missionaries, discouraged missionary work in their Indian territories. However, since Serampore was under Danish rule, the missionaries and the Press were able to operate freely. The press produced 212,000 books between 1800 and 1832.
Answer:
The Serampore Mission Press was established in Serampore on January 10, 1800 by William Carey, William Ward, and other British Baptist missionaries as an auxiliary of the Serampore Mission. In August that year, a Bengali translation of the Gospel according to St Matthew was published by the press. The press produced 212,000 books between 1800 and 1832. The British government, highly suspicious of missionaries, discouraged any missionary work in their territory.[citation needed] Serampore, in Bengal, being a Danish colony, provided refuge to Carey and company.
The press published religious Christian tracts, Indian literary works, translations of the Bible in twenty five Indian vernaculars and other South Asian languages, but the major contribution of the press was printing vernacular textbooks. The press printed books on grammar, dictionaries, history, legends and moral tales for the Fort William College and the Calcutta School Book Society.
The press also started to publish the first Bengali newspaper and magazine from 1818. It published books in almost forty five languages. It was formally closed down in 1837 when the Mission ran into heavy debts, according to Nikhil Sarkar in "Printing and the Spirit of Calcutta", the press merged with the Baptist Mission Press.
Gangakishore Bhattacharya, considered as the first-ever Bengali printer, publisher, bookseller and newspaper editor began his career as a compositor at the Mission Press. After beginning his life as a compositor, he set up his own Bangal Gezeti Press in 1818, which was also responsible for printing the first illustrated book in Bengal, the Annadamangal in 1816.