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MANUSCRIPTS AND THE AGE OF PRINT :-
- India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts , in multiple languages like, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and others.
- Manuscript pages would be beautifully illustrated.
- Manuscripts were handwritten documents, mostly done on Palm leaves or the bark of trees.
- They were highly expensive and fragile.
- They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.
Copy of the BENGAL GAZETTE by HICKY.
PRINT COMES TO INDIA :
- First printing press came to Goa through Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16th century.
- Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed material.
- By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in Konkani and Kanara.
- First Tamil Book was printed in Cochin in 1579.
- First Malayalam book was printed in 1713.
- English language press did not develop in india till the late 17th century, till the English East India company began to import presses.
- English printing began in India from 1780.
- James Augustus Hickey began to edit the the ‘Bengal Gazette’.
- Bengal Gazette was a weekly magazine that described itself as a ‘ commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’.
- It was a private English enterprise free from colonial influence.
- Hickey was persecuted ( ill treated) by General Warren Hastings because he published a lot of gossip about the company’s officers in India.
- By the 18th century, there were a lot of newspapers and journals to be printed for the public.
