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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2024
The first printing press landed on the western coast of India in the mid-sixteenth century. The introduction of printing technology did not immediately lead to a flourishing print culture, and the oral and scribal traditions continued to thrive for at least three more centuries. This article examines the emergence of print culture in nineteenth-century western India by surveying the literary sources in the Marathi language. It argues that the book was regarded as a sacred object in the pre-print era and reading was considered a ritualistic activity. Print, on the other hand, was seen as defiling and therefore orthodox Brahmins hesitated to embrace the technology of printing. They were also threatened by the democratizing potential of printing. As the print culture bourgeoned, the sacredness of the book declined and it turned into a profane commodity. A market for vernacular books and periodicals started emerging gradually. However, pre-modern notions of literary patronage did not wither away as authors and publishers continued to bank on state patronage.
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3 O’Hanlon, Rosalind, ‘Performance in a world of paper: Puranic histories and social communication in early modern India’, Past & Present, no. 219, 2013, pp. .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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6 While describing the role of kīrtan in disseminating poetry, Moropanta’s biographer refers to a kīrtan performance at Gopalrao Deshmukh’s house, which was attended by Justice Ranade; they were both forerunners of social reforms in the Bombay presidency. Lakshman Ramachandra Pangarkar, Moropanta: Caritra aṇi Kāvyavivecan (Mumbai: Hind Agency, Booksellers and Publishers, 1908), p. 4 of ‘Prastāvanā’. Similarly, in her reminiscences, Ramabai Ranade refers to bhāgavat performances by Anasuyabai, a Sanskrit scholar, and purāṇa recitals by Pandita Ramabai, a Sanskrit scholar and social reformer. Ramabai Ranade, Āmacyā Āyuṣyāntīl Kāhī Āṭhavanī (Mumbai: Manorañjak Granthaprasārak Maṇḍaḻī, 1910), p. 104.
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16 Naregal also suggests that Anderson’s thesis needs modification with respect to the colonial situation, but does not develop the argument further. Naregal, Veena, Language politics, elites and the public sphere: Western India under colonialism (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2001), p. Google Scholar.
17 Yashwant Ramakrishna Date, Māhārāṣṭra Śabdakośa (Pune: Māhārāṣṭra Kośamaṇḍaḻa, 1932–1950); available at https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/date/, [last accessed 11 April 2024].
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19 Deshpande discusses at length scribal practices related to bureaucratic documentation and illustrates how, at times, orality underwrote the materiality of written documents and how spoken and written words engaged in a ‘procedural dance’. She also throws a light on literate practices of religious sects, particularly Rāmadāsī sampradāya, in which vocalized reading accompanied by revision and memorization were a part of the daily regimen, along with writing, which was seen as a form of devotional labour and as the materialization of everyday religiosity. Deshpande, Scripts of power, pp. 36–47 and pp. 116–120. Novetzke draws our attention to kīrtankār notebooks or bāḍas, which were generally manuscripts with stitched spines, meant to hold the notes and jottings of a kīrtan performer. The writings in bāḍas were meant to serve orality and performance. Thus, he points out, ‘oral’ texts of the bāḍa were very different from the ‘literary’ texts of the pothī or grantha. Novetzke, ‘Note to self’; Lee Novetzke, Christian, ‘Divining an author: The idea of authorship in an Indian religious tradition’, History of Religions, vol. 42, no. 3, 2003, pp. .Google Scholar
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21 In Stevenson’s grammar, while interword spacing is used in Nāgari paragraphs, Moḍī paragraphs are written in scriptura continua. Stevenson, J., The principles of Murathee grammar (Bombay: Education Society’s Press, 1833).Google Scholar
22 The prevalence of continuous writing and performative reading has been observed in other parts of India, too. Venkatachalapathy argues that orthography followed in Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts—writing without spaces and punctuation—determined the mode of reading. Reading a continuous text entailed deciphering it and therefore necessitated vocalized reading, which could not usually happen in private. He also describes at length arangettram ceremonies, where the texts were ritually premiered to an audience. Venkatachalapathy, A. R., The province of the book: Scholars, scribes, and scribblers in colonial Tamilnadu (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2012), p. .Google Scholar
23 Naregal, Language politics, p. 30.
24 Ibid.
25 Though prākṛt is a generic term meaning a vernacular language, Marathi was referred to as Prākṛt by its speakers until the nineteenth century.
26 Acworth, H. A., ‘Marathi Poetry’, in Elphinstone College Union Lectures, First Series 1891–92, (ed.) Paymaster, R. B. (Fort Printing Press, 1893), p. .Google Scholar
27 O’Hanlon, ‘Performance in a world of paper’, p. 97.
28 Padmanji, Baba, Aruṇodaya: Bābā Padmanjī Hyānce Svalikhita Caritra (Mumbai: Bombay Tract and Book Society, 1955), p. .Google Scholar
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32 Mitchell, J. Murray (ed.), Once Hindu, now Christian: The early life of Baba Padmanji (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1889), p. .Google Scholar
33 The practices mentioned by Padmanji, such as waving the lamp, remind one of garlanding the radio and television sets while listening to or watching Gīt Rāmāyaṇa or a TV series on Rāmāyaṇa in the 1950s and 1980s respectively.
34 Padmanji, Aruṇodaya, p. 12.
35 Pangarkar, Moropanta, pp. 16–17.
36 Naregal, Language politics, p. 28.
37 Pandit, Bhavāḻakar Ātmavṛtta, p. 39.
38 Padmanji, Aruṇodaya, p. 32. (Translation mine.)
39 Priolkar, Dādobā Pāṇḍuraṅga, p. 64. (Translation mine.)
40 Shridhar Vyankatesh Ketkar, Mahārāṣṭrīyānce Kāvya Parīkṣaṇ (Pune: Jñānakośa Chāpakhānā, 1928), pp. 124–126.
41 Ganesh Prabhakar Pradhan (ed.), Āgarkar-lekhasaṅgraha (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2008), pp. 226–235.
42 Molesworth and Candy, Dictionary, Marathi and English, p. 872.
43 Padmanji, Aruṇodaya, p. 7.
44 The Kalāśāstrottejak Samūha (Society for Promotion of Arts and Sciences), Pune, manufactured soaps without using animal fat so that they could be used in sovaḻe. Berar Samachar, 12 October 1873. A schoolmaster in Khandesh prepared candles that could be used in sovaḻe. Berar Samachar, 18 January 1874.
45 Narayan Madgaonkar, Govind, Mumbaice Varṇan (Aurangabad: Saket, 2011), p. Google Scholar. (Translation mine.)
46 Lele, R. K., Marāṭhī Vṛttapatrāncā Itihās (Pune: Continental, 1984), p. .Google Scholar
47 As cited in Priolkar, Dādobā Pāṇḍuraṅga, p. 159, footnote. (Translation mine.)
48 Ibid., pp. 174, 37.
49 G. Buhler (trans.), The Laws of Manu, vol. XXV of The Sacred Books of the East, (ed.) F. Max Muller (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1886), p. 187.
50 T. W. Rhys Davids (trans.), Questions of King Milinda, Part II, vol. XXXVI F of The Sacred Books of the East, (ed.) Max Muller (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894), p. 194.
51 Berar Samachar, 2 June 1878.
52 Mahajan, S. G., History of the public library movement in Maharashtra (Pune: Shubhada-Saraswat, 1984), p. .Google Scholar
53 Priolkar, Dādobā Pāṇḍuraṅga, p. 159.
54 National Archives of India (hereafter NAI), Home, Public, December 1882, No. 246–248.
55 Vividha-Jñāna-Vistāra, vol. 24, no. 6, 1892. (Translation mine.)
56 Govindashastri, Mahadev, Prākṛt Kavitece Pahile Pustak (Pune: Jñānaprakāśa, 1860), p. .Google Scholar
57 ‘Dārūpāyī Kulakṣaya’, Citramay Jagat, vol. 3, no. 4, 1912.
58 Savitribai Phule, a non-Brahmin social reformer and the first indigenous woman to be a schoolteacher/principal in colonial India, however, could write in Moḍī. Her Moḍī signature as well as poems she wrote in Moḍī hand are available. Mali, M. G. (ed.), Savitrībaī Phule Samagra Vāṅmay (Mumbai: Māhārāṣṭra Rājya Sāhitya Āṇi Saṃskṛti Maṇḍaḻa, 2011).Google Scholar
59 ‘Subodh Saṃvād’, Vividha-Jñāna-Vistāra, vol. 1, no. 5, 1867.
60 Ranade, Āṭhavanī, p. 46. (Emphasis added.)
61 Ibid., p. 44.
62 Ibid., p. 57.
63 Ibid., p. 58 (Translation mine.)
64 Ibid., p. 60. (Translation mine.)
65 Ibid., p. 114.
66 Hari Narayan Apte, Paṇa Lakṣānt Koṇ Gheto! (Pune: Mehta Publishing House, 1992), p. 219. (Translation mine.)
67 Ibid., pp. 287–288.
68 Mahārāshṭra Mahilā, vol. 1, no. 2, 1901.
69 Vividha-Jñāna-Vistāra, vol. 18, no. 11–12, 1886.
70 Citramay Jagat, vol. 1, no. 5, 1910, p. 84.
71 Memorial Papers of the American Marathi Mission, 1813–1881 (Bombay: Education Society’s Press, 1882), p. .Google Scholar
72 Rev Geo. Bowen, as cited in Memorial Papers, p. 101.
73 For example, the production cost of each copy of the New Testament published by the Bible Society in 1868 was Rs 2, but were sold at just 6 Anna per copy. As reported in Jñānodaya, 1 June 1868.
74 Memorial Papers, p. 103.
75 Ibid.
76 Padmanji, Aruṇodaya, pp. 54, 85.
77 Maharashtra State Archives (hereafter MSA), DPC Inward Vol. 7, Jan. 1863–Dec. 1866, Letter dated 29 January 1858.
78 NAI, Home, Public, April 1883, No. 186–189.
79 NAI, Home, Public, August 1882 [A], 202–205.
80 The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island (Bombay: The Times Press, 1909), p. 309.
81 Ibid., p. 332. Gujarati, English, Portuguese, Hindu, and Urdu presses were also present in the city in significant numbers. It is not clear from the Gazette how many of the companies, printers, and publishers, and how much capital, were involved in Marathi printing and publishing.
82 Indian Newspaper Reports, 1868–1942, Part 6 Bombay, 1874–1898; Part 7 Bombay, 1901–1921. http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/indian_newspaper_reports_parts_1_to_4/documents/NewspaperListingsforParts6.pdf; http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/indian_newspaper_reports_part_7/documents/NewspaperListingsforParts1-7.pdf, [both accessed 5 September 2024].
83 Date, Shankar Ganesh (ed.), Marāṭhī Niyatakālikānci Sūci (1800–1955) (Mumbai: Mumbai Marāṭhī Grantha Sañgrahālaya, 1969).Google Scholar
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87 S. K. Kolhatkar, ‘Marāṭhī Vāṅmayātīl Viṣeś va Tyāñce Ugam’, Vividha-Jnāna-Vistāra, vol. 40, no. 11, 1909.
88 ‘Nityāce Marāṭhī Vartamānapatra’, Berar Samachar, 18 June, 1870; Kondadev Oak, Vinayak, Mahārāṣṭra Granthasangraha (Mumbai: Nirṇaysāgar, 1897).Google Scholar
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93 NAI, Foreign, Deposit—I, September 1909, No. 46.
94 Vinayak Kondadeva Oak, ‘Granthakartṛtva’, Vividha-Jñāna-vistāra, vol. 36, no. 2, 1905, p. 43.
95 NAI, Home, Public, April 1883, No. 186–189.
96 Jñānaprakāśa, 11 October 1858.
97 Jñānodaya, 1 November 1849.
98 Ibid.
99 MSA, Director of Public Instruction Inward Vol., 1867–68, Letter no. 1175, dated 10 July 1860.
100 Generally, 500 copies of a book were printed; if the DPC felt that there would be greater demand for a particular work, 1,000 copies were printed.
101 MSA, DPC Minutes, 1851–1859, Letter dated 11 November 1901.
102 MSA, DPC Inward Vol. 7, Jan 1863– Dec. 1866, Letter dated 9 March 1864.
103 MSA, DPC Minutes, 1851–1859, No. 3 of 1857, S-205.
104 Kesarī, 17 February 1885.
105 Karve, Ātmavṛtta, p. 146.
106 Kesarī, 24 May 1881.
107 Kesarī, 14 June 1881.
108 Kesarī, 24 May–26 July 1881.
109 Kesarī, 19 July 1881.
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