Battala, Bengali Almanac and Competition: A Review

Battala and Bengali almanac had been playing a significant role in Indian book market since nineteenth century. Just before the publication of Bengali daily the introduction of printed Bengali almanac without much fanfare by certain Ramhari of Serampore in the year 1818 lent a new dimension to Indian book market. But unfortunately no copy of that issue is available. In the same year another Bengali almanac was published by Durgaprasad from Jorashanko of Calcutta. Durgaprasad Vidyabhusan of Jorasanko, probably the first publisher of extant printed Bengali almanac, introduced himself thus – ‘I am Durgaprasad of Jorasanko……….’. At that time the areas of Battala included (1) Main BandhaBattalt covering Sovabazar, Balakhana, Darjeetola, Kumartuli, Garanhata, Ahiritola. (2) Darjeepara, Shimle. (3) Shyambazar, Bagbazar, Talabagan Lane. (4) Pathurighata, Jorabagan, Jorasanko, Dompara, Chorbagan. (5) Jhamapukur, Thanthane, Pataldanga, Barsimle, Sealdah. So it may be claimed that the first extant Bengali almanac was published from Battala. From the title page of different Bengali almanacs it is revealed that the publishers of Battala started to publish Bengali almanac regularly since the middle of the nineteenth century. This corroborated by the statement of Sri Suryakumar Dey, publisher of ‘Batakrishna Pal’s Panjika O Diary’ of 1904-05. According to Sri Dey ‘the increasing demand of almanac in the society motivated the inland publishers of Battala and they started publishing almanacs’. ‘Natun Panjika’ of 1855-56 was published by Sri Madhusudan Roy of Kasaitola from Hindu Partiot Press. Sri Indranarayan Ghosh of Bandha Battala of Chitpore, Calcutta published ‘Natun Panjika’ of 1856-57. ‘Natun Panjika’ of 1866-67 was published by Sri Dharaballav Shil of 2/12, Ahiritola. Sri Indranarayan Ghosh provided his address - 317, Battala, Chitpore Road in the title page of his publication entitled ‘Natun Panjika’ of 1870-71. ‘Natun Panjika of Day Law & Co’s’ for the year 1871-72 was published by Sri Siddessur Ghosh from the house number 61 of Ahiritola. Sri Maheshchandra Ghosh of 317, Battala, Chitpore Road published ‘NatunPanjika’ of 1873-74. ‘B.R.Dey & Brother’s Bengali Almanac & Directory’ of 1874-75 was published by Sri Balaram Dey from 53, Ratan Sarker’s Garden Street of Jorasanko. Sri Benimadhab Bhattacharya published ‘College Panjika ebong Birhad Directory’ from 141, Chitpore Road in the year 1882-83. From the same address Sri Benimadhab Bhattacharya published ‘Natun Victoria Panjika arthat Birhad Directory’ of 1890-91. From 133, Majidbari Street Sri Akshaya Kumar Dey published ‘New Almanac & Directory’ of 1902-03. In addition, the publishers of Bengali almanac of different place also preferred Battala for selling their publications. Sri Nabincharayan Bandyopadhyay of Serampore published Bengali almanac entitled ‘Natun Panjika’ in the year 1858-59 and at the bottom of the title page of this almanac he mentioned where it would be available. This practice was not rare at all and most of the publishers outside Battala followed this practice. In 1870-71, Sri Madhabchandra Surya Siddhanta of Serampore stated at the beginning of his publication entitled ‘Natun Panjika’ – ‘the interested person may collect the following books from the book shop of Sri Indranarayan Ghosh of 319, Battala, Chitpore Road, Kolkata by sending price along with postal charges by post’17 under the caption ‘advertisement’. N. L. Seal, publisher of ‘N. L. Seal’s Bengalee Almanac & Directory’ of 1878-79, used his publication as a medium for the advertisement of his press titled ‘N. L. Seal’s Press No. 99 Aheereetollah, Office No. 319, Chitpore Road, Buttollah’. By this advertisement N. L. Seal introduced himself as ‘Bookseller and Printer’ and here he informed all the interested persons through mentioning that this press dealt in Job and Book Printing of every description with neatness and a very moderate rate in Bengali, Debnagaree and English type. In nineteenth century, Indian conventional book market was extremely challenged by the publications of Battala. The elite section of the then society ignored the publications of Battala and branded these as ‘Blue Literature’. Capitalizing on the opinion of the elite class the publishers of Bengali almanac outside Battala also criticized the almanacs which were published from Battala and the concerned publishers only to beat them in competition. Rev. James Long observed that the then book market of Calcutta was controlled by the Bengali almanac. In his own words ‘almanac stood first among the published Bengali books and about two lakh fifty thousand copies of almanac were published annually. Probably the increasing demand of Bengali almanac published from Battala put pressure on the publishers of other Bengali almanacs and they started to feel insecure in respect of loss of their market share. With the sole motive of retaining their individual market share most of the publishers of Bengali almanac started to attack the publishers of Bengali almanac of Battala in the following ways: A close examination of the pages of ‘Guptapress Panjika’ of different years will give us a clear hint about the fierceness of competition, though in a sophisticated manner, among the publishers. The mode of competition at that time is evidenced by the publication titled ‘Guptapress Panjika of 1887-88’. This particular almanac also helps us to form an idea how keen the struggle of the competitors was to establish their control over the publication of Bengali almanacs. The following statement of Sri Durgacharan Gupta, of Gupta Press Panjika, may serve to give the readers an idea about it. In 1888-89, the publisher of ‘Guptapress Panjika’ inveighed against his competitors by stating that –‘with an object to assist the people I started to publish almanac. But it was beyond my imagination that it may affect someone’. He also accused, though in a veiled manner, some of his competitors of Battala of plagiarism: ‘Some traders of almanac of Battala copy all matters of our panjika in toto. They also follow our size which confuse the people and delude them into accepting these as almanac published by Guptapress’. Finally, the publisher of Guptapress criticized his competitors by mentioning that ‘I am fortunate enough because people have been following me and it is my great pleasure that these activities of the people have been exposed also’. Sri Gayancharan Gupta, publisher of ‘Guptapress Panjika of 1893-94’ acknowledged the problem of the then society ‘to select a single almanac from so many in the market appearing due to intra-confrontation of the publishers of Bengali almanac. Now-a-days, everyone is trying to get recognition as a maker of almanac'. He also blamed the dishonest publishers who not only copied almanac of Guptapress but started to publish almanac in the name of Guptapress also. Without taking any legal action against them the publisher of Guptapress tried to alert their readers about the duplicate publication. Sri Kanailal Dutta and Brothers, publisher of ‘Sri Nabadwip Sammata Dutta and Brothers Natun Gupta Panjika’, of 1897-98, clearly stated that ‘the acceptance of their publication is much more than the panjikas of Battala and other local panjikas’. The publisher here clearly indicated Battala as the main competitor and his competitive attitude was reflected in the ‘Introduction’ to this publication. ‘Batakrishna Pal & Co’ published advertisement of its own publication titled ‘Batakrishna Pal’s Panjika O Directory’ in ‘New Almanac & Directory of 1903-04’. With the aid of this advertisement the publisher informed the society that ‘Panjika O Diary of Batakrishna Pal & Co was published from 1902-03’. It also contained the information that ‘One copy of Panjika shall be sent free of cost against an application accompanied with required postal charges. Publisher Sri Suryakumar Dey on behalf of ‘Batakrishna Pal’s Panjika O Diary of 1904-05’ focused on the historical perspective of Bengali almanacs thus – ‘At first, almanac of the Hindus was published and sold at Serampore after the introduction of Bengali printing machine by the Christian Missionaries there. After then Cons Company of Calcutta began to publish almanac and it was communicated under the heading ‘Introduction’. He also glorified their own effort by criticizing the endeavour of the other publishers of Bengali almanac under the same caption – ‘If the publishers of Bengali almanacs put as much emphasis on the accuracy of almanac as they put on generation of profit by selling the same through experienced persons who are adept in calculations, then the possibility of errors of almanac can be reduced considerably. Everybody will appreciate that we are not publishing almanac simply for making profit because we are distributing it among the people free of cost’. But critics were of the view that the business magnet Batakrishna Pal sought to link the society with his multidimensional business efforts by distributing Bengali almanac free of cost. All this leads us to conclude that Batakrishna Pal introduced a new route of advertisement which was able to generate double benefits against single cost. Through the publication of almanac he was able to advertise all of his products free of cost because his almanac was filled with advertisements of his own products. Further he managed to develop public relations through free distribution of almanacs among the elites of the society. In this way he endeavoured to promote his business by winning the confidence of the people. Mainly the increasing demand of almanac motivated the publishing houses of Battala and other places to publish almanac. In the middle of the nineteenth century almost all the publishing houses of India started to publish almanac and this practice created a competitive environment in Indian book market. From competitive attitude all the publishers of almanac, both Battala and outside, tried to establish their supremacy over others by incorporating multidimensional information on various sectors viz., agriculture, industrial affairs, education, health, transport, post and telegraph, registration, administration covers social, civil, municipal, and police etc in their almanac for the assistance of the people of the society. But curiously enough, a section of the publisher of almanac outside Battala criticized without any reason the almanac of Battala simply for the purpose of wining the competition. It is true that on many occasions many publications of Battala overstepped the limits of decency. But the merits and demerits of almanac published both from Battala and outside remain almost the same.
References: 1. Ramgati Nayaratna: Bangla Bhasa O Bangla BishyakPrastab, DitiyoBhag. 2. Nilay Saha: Bangla Panjika: DushoBacharerAloieGana-Gapan O Bignapan. 3. Durgaprasad Vidyabhusan: Panjika of 1818-19. 4. Sukumar Sen: BattalarBai, Dui Sataker Bangla Mudran O Prakashana, Edited by Chittaranjan Bandyopadhyay. 5. Sir Suryakumar Dey:Batakrishna Pal Co’s Panjika O Diary, 1904-05. 6. Sir Madhusudan Roy: Natun Panjika, 1855-56. 7. Sri Indranarayan Ghosh: Natun Panjika, 1856-57. 8. Sri Dharaballav Shil: Natun Panjika, 1866-67. 9. Sri Indranarayan Ghosh: Natun Panjika, 1870-71. 10. Sri Siddessur Ghosh: Natun Panjika of Day Law & Co’s, 1871-72. 11. Sri Maheschanra Ghosh: Natun Panjika, 1873-74. 12. Sri Balaram Dey: B.R.Dey & Brother’s Bengali Almanac & Directory, 1874-75. 13. Sri Benimadhab Bhattacharya: College Panjika abong Brihad Directory, 1882-83. 14. Sri Benimadhab Bhattacharya: Natun Victoria Panjika arthat Birhad Directory, 1890-91. 15. Sri Akshaya Kumar Dey: New Almanac & Directory, 1902-03. 16. Sri Nabinchandra Bandyopadhyay: Natun Panjika, 1858-59. 17. Sri Madhabchandra Surya Siddhanta: Natun Panjika, 1870-71. 18. Sri Nityalal Seal: N. L. Seal’s Bengalee Almanac & Directory, 1878-79. 19. Returns relating to the publications in the Bengali Language in 1857. 20. Sri Durgacharan Gupta: Guptapress Panjika, 1887-88. 21. Sri Durgacharan Gupta: Guptapress Panjika, 1887-88. 22. Ibid. 23. Sri Gayancharan Gupta:Guptapress Panjika, 1893-94. 24. Sri Kanailal Dutta and Brothers: Sri Nabadwip Sammata Dutta and Brothers Natun Gupta Panjika, 1897-98. 25. Sri Suryakumar Dey:Batakrishan Pal Co’sPanjika O Diary, 1904-05.