Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya

Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya (died 1831) was an Indian journalist, teacher and reformer. He was born in Bahara village, near Serampore. He started his career as a compositor in Baptist Mission Press, Serampore. But later on he shifted to Calcutta. In 1816, he edited the earliest illustrated book published in Bengali language, the Annadamangala, printed in the Ferris and Company press, Calcutta. The two illustrations in this book were engraved by Ramachand Roy. In 1818, he set up a printing press in Calcutta, the Bengal Gazette Press for printing Bengali books. Probably Harachandra Roy, who also hailed from Serampore, was his partner. The works written or edited by him and printed in this press include: A Grammar in English and Bengalee Language (1816), Daybhag (1816), Drabyagun (1828) and Chikitsarnab.

In Calcutta, he started a business of publication and selling of books. Serampore's Samachar Darpan, wrote highly of him. Apart from the few books he wrote, Gangabhaktitarangini, Lakshmicharitra, Betal Panchabingshati, Chanakya Sloka and a collaborated work by Lallu Lal and Ram Mohan Roy, were published by him.

Around 1806–07, a Hindu called Baburam established a printing machine for the first time, in Devanagari letters, at Khidderpore, for publishing Sanskrit and Hindi books. Roebuck in Annals of the College of Fort William talks about Lord Minto's lecture in Fort William College on 27 February 1808: "A printing press has been established by learned Hindoos, furnished with complete founts of improved Nagree types of different sizes, for the printing of books in the Sunskrit language. This press has been encouraged by the college to undertake an edition of the best Sanskrit Dictionaries, and a compilation of the Sunskrit rules of Grammar.... will form a valuable collection of Sanskrit philology.” The printing press came to be known as the Sanskrit Press. In 1814–15 Munshi Lallulal Kavi, a Gujarati Brahmin (of the Braja Bhasa) of Fort William College was believed to have acquired the rights to Baburam's Sanskrit Press. Apart from Hindi and Sanskrit texts, he arranged for the publication of Bengali texts as well. In that very machine, pundit Ramachandra Bidyabagish's Jyotishsangrahasar was published too. In a time when the only available printing presses were Ferris and Co. Press, Hindoostani Press, Bengali Press and Serampore Mission Press, Ganga Kishore ventured in establishing a Bengali printing press in 1818 known as the Bengal Gazette Press or Office.

...
Wikipedia