U. Ray and Sons
Encyclopedia
U. Ray and Sons was a privately held printing and publishing firm in Calcutta founded by Upendrakishore Ray
in 1895. At its inception the firm was christened U. Ray after its owner. The epithet Sons was added in 1900 when his son Sukumar Ray
joined the firm. The family ownership of the firm collapsed in 1926. The firm was renovated under a new owner in 1929. While in business, it was notable for internationally pioneering work in halftone
process work.
U. Ray and Sons was primarily set up as an initiative to remedy the lack of good quality printing of illustrations in Calcutta in spite of the existence of advanced printing presses in the early 1890s. Upendrakishore, a versatile genius, excelling in the fields of children’s literature, music, painting and printing technology could not therefore have first grade illustrations published for his Children’s Ramayan. A lack of skill in graphic arts and photo-processes resulted in ruined print illustrations. ‘At that time, only a few local firms like Thacker and Spincks (of Thacker's Indian Directory
) took commercial orders for halftone blocks but they were very costly. Being of an inventive and mechanical turn of mind, Upendrakishore ordered the necessary equipment from A.W. Penrose & Co., of 109 Farringdon Street, London
, and began to study the technical nature of the subject. These studies led him to investigate the theoretical basis of the process camera
and arrive at conclusions which standardises the hitherto empirical pratices at process work.’ ‘A camera and various pieces of half-tone equipment [arrived] from Britain […] bybullock cart; soon after that, they moved out of 13 Cornwallis Street to a house not far away which Upendrakisore had made into a studio. The money for this came from selling most of his share in the zamindari at his ancestral home in Mymensingh
to his foster brother Narendrakisore, who was in charge of it following his father Harikisore’s death,’ records Andrew Robinson
systems, his invention of the sixty-degree screen, his original methods of colour reproduction, his studies in diffraction
and his contributions towards standardising half-tone camera work were all intimately connected with the progress of the photographic method of reproducing illustrations. While Siddhartha Ghosh in his essay on Sukumar Ray
’s Abol Tabol
tells us that Upendrakishore patented a gadget known as the ‘automatic screen adjustment indicator’ which was sold as an optional accessory to the Penrose company’s process camera, Andrew Robinson
quotes a Penrose Annual issue in which its London editor explains a lack of articles by Mr. U. Ray as an outcome of ill health and further informs the printing trade that U. Ray had anticipated by some years the important screen just patented by someone in Britain’ and that ‘unable to prove his theory in Calcutta for lack of resources, Upendrakisore had appealed to his colleagues in Britain for help and one of them had plagiarised his ideas.
The firm first advertised in 1985 that they were undertaking bromide
enlargements and half-tone printmaking
. Within two years of the establishment of the firm, advertisements appeared in the Amrita Bazar Patrika
on 25th November 1896 (the leading daily newspaper of its time) stating the undertaking of ‘half-tone block bromide enlargements of the highest quality only’ and ‘half-tone block from photograph etc at Rupee One.’ Another advertisement appeared in the same newspaper on 2 July 1897 and provides more details-
By 1910, the firm was undertaking ‘original designs in black and white in colours for tables, books, magazines and catalogue illustrations, show cards, letterheads etc.’
The growth of the firm coincided to Upendrakishore’s son Sukumar Ray
going abroad on the Guruprasanna Ghosh Scholarship at Presidency College
, Calcutta in 1911 to study at the London County Council
School of Photoengraving
and Lithography
. An integral part of the firm, Sukumar was to take over the running of the press when his father fell ill and his knowledge and technical expertise regarding latest printing techniques, half-tones and multiple stops picked up at LCC and later at the School of Technology at the University of Manchester
(where he took the City and Guilds of London Institute
Examination and was awarded the first prize) stood him in good stead. Letters exchanged between father and son during this period explore the possibility of producing and patenting a colour camera. His return to Calcutta saw the firm advertising, stressing, among other things, 'the unique results of twenty years’ experience and research and two years’ intimate study of European methods’.
Around the same time, when Ramananda Chatterjee
's Prabasi (sister to the Modern Review
) became the first ever periodical in Bengali
to feature a reproduction of a photograph on its cover purely for the sake of illustration, the block was turned out by U. Ray and Sons and the photograph taken by Sukumar Ray
.
. Much information can be got from grandson Satyajit Ray
’s recollections of this new press as recorded in Andrew Robinson’s The Inner Eye
.
classic Tuntunir Boi or The Tailor Bird's Book. Published by Sukumar Ray
from Sukia Street it was printed by Haricharan Manna at the Kantik Press on Cornwallis Street and priced at 8 annas. Illustrated by line drawing sketches by the author it is a collection of twenty-seven folk tales for children. 'In his brief preface to the volume, Raychaudhuri writes of a story-telling habit prevalent among household women in certain parts of eastern Bengal [the author probably refers to Mymensingh which had been his desh or native region and a province particularly rich in folklore]. At the end of the day, when little children tend to drop off to sleep before having their suppers, affectionate nurses, mothers, aunts or grandmothers try to keep their sleepy-eyed wards amused with pleasing stories. The enchantment of the tales help keep the children diverted while the women feed them playfully. The tales of the book are drawn from that treasury of oral nursery lore, from a tradition steeped in the tenderness of motherly affection. The stories are short and entertaining – as would suit the patience and understanding of little folks - and peopled with a stock of native characters: the sprightly tailor-bird, the stupid tiger, the little sparrow, the wily fox, the clever cat, the hunch-back woman or the foolish weaver.'
Samples of the Title Page and Page 8 of the text show us how its form was.
, the monthly magazine of Upendrakishore first came into print in 1913 ( Boishakh
Issue). Sukumar Ray
was its editor for the first three months. Later after his father’s death (December 20, 1915), he enjoyed its sole editorship for the next eight years. Under his editorship the children’s magazine became a source of scientific information while retaining its usual short stories and poems. But there was a distinct change in the whole approach. The magazine now contained more essays on science and animal kingdom than the former issues with colorful illustrations of poetry. When the issue carried an essay on Strange Crabs, the illustration on the first page was that of a colorful crab. ( Srabon
1916) When there was an essay on Monstrous Spiders the illustration was that of a spider. (Agrahayana
1916) This no doubt enhanced the scientific flavor of this little magazine. Ray gave his readers brief sketches of famous personalities like Mungo Park
, David Livingston
, Columbus
, Iowan, Sir Philip Sidney, Florence Nightingale
, John Pounds
, Socrates
, Alfred Nobel
, Archimedes
, Galileo and Louis Pasteur
.
The magazine continued in spite of the briefly spaced interval between Upendrakishore’s death and Sukumar's, being managed by a number of family members, chief among them Sukumar’s brother, Subinay. The Inner Eye
throws light on the subsequent years of the magazine through Satyajit’s association with it.
The publication of Sandesh
came to an end for a while when the firm collapsed, only to be revived by Satyajit Ray in 1961.
, an anthology of Sukumar Ray
’s poems was first published in parts in a number of issues in Sandesh
. First published in 1923, it is a selection on Nonsense verse
influenced by Lewis Carroll
and Edward Lear
. Sukumar was on his deathbed while preparing the dummy for this book, and his awareness of the nearness of his end impresses itself on some of the verse. Extensive work has been done on the making of this text by Siddhartha Ghosh, who writes of how, to keep to the dummy, the author had to add a few short poems. ‘Likewise, silhouette-tailpieces also first appeared on the dummy. One common feature of all these sketches is that all of them represent some kind of tug-of-war, push-or-pull, or strained relationship.’
In terms of book design too, Abol Tabol
was unique – the book was bound at the top and the pages had to be flipped over as in a letter-writing pad. Again, Sandesh
was printed in white-print and as such half-tone blocks could be accommodated. But Abol Tabol
was supposed to be printed on antique and accordingly Sukumar discarded all the old blocks (the ones that had been used in Sandesh) and replaces them with line blocks. In some pages of the dummy, Sukumar instructed the printer to cut out a portion of the block to accommodate the heading as indicated by him. Abol Tabol
was published 9 days after the author’s death on 10 September 1923.
Kuladaranjan (Satyajit’s uncle) and published by U. Ray and Sons who retold the Iliad
and the Odyssey
in Bengali, and a great many Indian legends
and folk-tales; also corresponding with Arthur Conan Doyle
’s widow and obtaining the rights to translate his works into Bengali gratis. An early advertisement by the firm of such work can be seen here.
Upendrakishore Ray
Upendrokishore Ray , also known as Upendrakishore Raychowdhury was a famous Bengali writer, painter, violin player and composer. He was born on 10 May 1863 in a little village called Moshua in Mymensingh District in Bengal, now in Bangladesh...
in 1895. At its inception the firm was christened U. Ray after its owner. The epithet Sons was added in 1900 when his son Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
joined the firm. The family ownership of the firm collapsed in 1926. The firm was renovated under a new owner in 1929. While in business, it was notable for internationally pioneering work in halftone
Halftone
Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing...
process work.
Inception
Thacker's Indian Directory
Thacker, Spink & Co. was a well known Kolkata publishing company. Thacker's Bengal Directory was published from 1864 to 1884 and covered the Bengal Presidency – which included the present day Myanmar and Bangladesh. From 1885 the Directory covered the whole of British India and was renamed...
) took commercial orders for halftone blocks but they were very costly. Being of an inventive and mechanical turn of mind, Upendrakishore ordered the necessary equipment from A.W. Penrose & Co., of 109 Farringdon Street, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and began to study the technical nature of the subject. These studies led him to investigate the theoretical basis of the process camera
Process camera
A process camera is a specialised form of camera used for mass reproduction of graphic materials. The original document was photographed and the negatives produced were used to produce printing plates - usually via some kind of process where the negative was put on top of the printing plate and...
and arrive at conclusions which standardises the hitherto empirical pratices at process work.’ ‘A camera and various pieces of half-tone equipment [arrived] from Britain […] bybullock cart; soon after that, they moved out of 13 Cornwallis Street to a house not far away which Upendrakisore had made into a studio. The money for this came from selling most of his share in the zamindari at his ancestral home in Mymensingh
Mymensingh
Mymensingh , pronounced moy-mon-shing-haw, is a city of Bangladesh situated on the river Brahmaputra. It is the headquarters of the administrative unit Mymensingh District. Mymensingh is the anglicized pronunciation of the original name Momenshahi, referring to a ruler called Momen Shah. The cadet...
to his foster brother Narendrakisore, who was in charge of it following his father Harikisore’s death,’ records Andrew Robinson
Andrew Robinson
Andrew Jordt "Andy" Robinson is an American film, stage, and television actor. Robinson is known to specialize in playing devious and psychotic roles. Originally a stage actor, he works predominantly in supporting roles on television and in low-budget films...
Growth
Experimentations began immediately and the firm’s reputation was aided by its owners contribution to his chosen field. Starting in 1897, Upendrakishore wrote a number of articles in the best-known British printing journal of the time, Penrose Annual, based on his researches. Their titles, though technical, are self-explanatory: ‘Focussing the Screen’ (1897), ‘The Theory of the Half-Tone Dot’ (1898),‘The Half-Tone Theory Graphically Explained’ (1899), ‘Automatic Adjustment of the Half-Tone Screen’ (1901), ‘Diffraction in Half-Tone’ (1902–3), ‘More About the Half-Tone Theory’ (1903–4), ‘The 60º Cross-Line Screen’ (1905–6), ‘Multiple Stops’ (1911–12). Upendrakishore’s papers about the diaphragmDiaphragm
-Optics and photography:* Diaphragm , a stop in the light path of a lens, having an aperture that regulates the amount of light that passes* Diaphragm shutter, a type of leaf shutter consisting of a number of thin blades in a camera-Acoustics:...
systems, his invention of the sixty-degree screen, his original methods of colour reproduction, his studies in diffraction
Diffraction
Diffraction refers to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word "diffraction" and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1665...
and his contributions towards standardising half-tone camera work were all intimately connected with the progress of the photographic method of reproducing illustrations. While Siddhartha Ghosh in his essay on Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
’s Abol Tabol
Abol Tabol
Abol tabol ; ; is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons...
tells us that Upendrakishore patented a gadget known as the ‘automatic screen adjustment indicator’ which was sold as an optional accessory to the Penrose company’s process camera, Andrew Robinson
Andrew Robinson
Andrew Jordt "Andy" Robinson is an American film, stage, and television actor. Robinson is known to specialize in playing devious and psychotic roles. Originally a stage actor, he works predominantly in supporting roles on television and in low-budget films...
quotes a Penrose Annual issue in which its London editor explains a lack of articles by Mr. U. Ray as an outcome of ill health and further informs the printing trade that U. Ray had anticipated by some years the important screen just patented by someone in Britain’ and that ‘unable to prove his theory in Calcutta for lack of resources, Upendrakisore had appealed to his colleagues in Britain for help and one of them had plagiarised his ideas.
The firm first advertised in 1985 that they were undertaking bromide
Bromide
A bromide is a chemical compound containing bromide ion, that is bromine atom with effective charge of −1. The class name can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.-Natural occurrence:...
enlargements and half-tone printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
. Within two years of the establishment of the firm, advertisements appeared in the Amrita Bazar Patrika
Amrita Bazar Patrika
Amrita Bazar Patrika was one of the oldest newspapers in India; it is written Bengali . It debuted on 20 February 1868. It was started by Sisir Ghosh and Moti Lal Ghosh, sons of Hari Naryan Ghose, a rich merchant from Magur, in District Jessore, in Bengal Province of British Empire in India. The...
on 25th November 1896 (the leading daily newspaper of its time) stating the undertaking of ‘half-tone block bromide enlargements of the highest quality only’ and ‘half-tone block from photograph etc at Rupee One.’ Another advertisement appeared in the same newspaper on 2 July 1897 and provides more details-
HALF-TONE BLOCKS :
U. Ray begs leave to state that by his new method of half-tone engraving
he is prepared to give result as very few persons in the world have
hitherto produced. He can now undertake to make half-tone blocks
of the following degrees of fineness of grain : 75, 85, 120, 133, 170,
240 and 266 lines to the inch. The patterns he can produce are simply
innumerable. Price for the ordinary kind of grains up to 133 lines—
Zinc blocks at Re 1 per sq. inch.
Copper blocks at Re 1-8 per sq. inch.
Price for more artistic work on application to:
U. Ray, B.A., Artist.
38-1 Shibnarain Dass Lane, Calcutta.
By 1910, the firm was undertaking ‘original designs in black and white in colours for tables, books, magazines and catalogue illustrations, show cards, letterheads etc.’
The growth of the firm coincided to Upendrakishore’s son Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
going abroad on the Guruprasanna Ghosh Scholarship at Presidency College
Presidency College
Presidency College could refer to the following Indian institutions:* Presidency College, Chennai* Presidency College, Kolkata*Presidency College, Bangalore...
, Calcutta in 1911 to study at the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...
School of Photoengraving
Photoengraving
Photoengraving also known as photo-chemical milling is a process of engraving using photographic processing techniques. The full form of photoengraving is photo mechanical process in the graphic arts, used principally for reproducing illustrations. The subject is photographed, and the image is...
and Lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
. An integral part of the firm, Sukumar was to take over the running of the press when his father fell ill and his knowledge and technical expertise regarding latest printing techniques, half-tones and multiple stops picked up at LCC and later at the School of Technology at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
(where he took the City and Guilds of London Institute
City and Guilds of London Institute
The City and Guilds of London Institute is a leading United Kingdom vocational education organisation. City & Guilds offers more than 500 qualifications over the whole range of industry sectors through 8500 colleges and training providers in 81 countries worldwide...
Examination and was awarded the first prize) stood him in good stead. Letters exchanged between father and son during this period explore the possibility of producing and patenting a colour camera. His return to Calcutta saw the firm advertising, stressing, among other things, 'the unique results of twenty years’ experience and research and two years’ intimate study of European methods’.
Around the same time, when Ramananda Chatterjee
Ramananda Chatterjee
Ramananda Chatterjee was founder, editor, and owner of the Calcutta based magazine, the Modern Review. He has been described as the father of Indian journalism.- Early life :...
's Prabasi (sister to the Modern Review
Modern Review
Modern Review has been used as a name for a number of magazines:* Modern Review * Modern Review * Modern Review...
) became the first ever periodical in Bengali
Bengali
Bengali may refer to something of, from, or related to Bengal, the region roughly divided between West Bengal, Tripura and Bangladesh.* Bengali people, a major linguistic group in South Asia* Bengali Hindu people, the ethnic group native to eastern India....
to feature a reproduction of a photograph on its cover purely for the sake of illustration, the block was turned out by U. Ray and Sons and the photograph taken by Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
.
Relocation
A new chapter in the history of the firm began in 1913 when the family residence as well as the workshop and office of the firm were constructed at 100 Garpar Road according to Upendrakishore’s design. This promoted the status of the firm from printers to publishers as well, with the printing of the first SandeshSandesh (magazine)
Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
. Much information can be got from grandson Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
’s recollections of this new press as recorded in Andrew Robinson’s The Inner Eye
The Inner Eye
The Inner Eye is a documentary film on the blind artist Binod Bihari Mukherjee by Satyajit Ray.-External links:*...
.
‘[ Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
’s ] main memories of those earliest years revolved around his grandfather’s house-cum-press, U. Ray and Sons at 100 Garpar Road, and the relatives who occupied it. It stood in a peaceful road in north Calcutta with a deaf-and-dumb school on one side and a private school on the other which was no doubt typical of the crammers that Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
tells us he spent his childhood years trying to escape in the 1860s and 70s. In the heat of midday, when Calcutta traffic of all kinds came to a stop, Satyajit would hear the chant of multiplication tables, of reading out loud and, sometimes, the shouts of angry masters. The building had three storeys and a fine flat roof, which Upendrakishore had used for his astronomy. The printing machinery was housed at the front of the building on the ground floor and directly above that were the block-making and typesettingTypesettingTypesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
rooms. The Ray family lived at the back on all three floors. To reach them, a visitor entered a small lane to one side of the house. A door gave on to stairs to the right which led to the family apartments; those turning left were on press business. Satyajit was fascinated from the beginning by the whole paraphernalia of printing, particularly as one of its end products was SandeshSandesh (magazine)Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
with its three-colour cover. He became a frequent visitor to the first floor. As he entered, the compositors, sitting side by side in front of their multisectioned Type caseType caseA type case is a compartmentalized wooden box used to store movable type used in letterpress printing....
s, would glance up at him and smile. He would make his way past them to the back of the room – to the block-making section with its enormous imported process camera, and its distinctive smells. ‘Even today,’ wrote Ray in 1981, ‘if I catch a whiff of turpentineTurpentineTurpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
, a picture of U. Ray and Sons’ block-making department floats before my eyes.’ The main operator of the camera, Ramdohin, was his friend. He had had no formal education; Upendrakisore had trained him from scratch and he was like one of the family. Presenting Ramdohin with a piece of paper with some squiggles on it, Satyajit would announce: ‘This is for Sandesh.’ Ramdohin would solemnly wag his head in agreement, ‘Of course, Khoka Babu, of course’ and lift Satyajit up to show him the upside-down image of his drawing in the screen of the camera. But somehow it would never appear in SandeshSandesh (magazine)Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
.’
Liquidation
After Sukumar Ray’s death the control of the firm passed into the hands of his brother Subinay Ray. The collapse of U. Ray and Sons in 1926 was the result of impracticality on the part of Sukumar’s brother Subinay who had been managing it, combined with disloyalty by some of the staff Upendrakisore had trained. No one now quite knows. Sound business planning was never one of the priorities of Upendrakisore and his direct descendants, though each demonstrated an ability to combine quality with commercial viability. In the case of Satyajit, he was emphatically not interested in business for its own sake. The firm was finally wound up in January 1927 and the family house built by Upendrakisore passed into the hands of the more reasonable of the creditors.Tuntunir Boi or The Tailor Bird's Book
Although U. Ray and Sons started initially as a half-tone process firm and did not have a printing press of its own till 1913, it moved onto publishing in 1910 with its first book, written by Upendrakishore himself, a subsequent all-time BengaliBengali
Bengali may refer to something of, from, or related to Bengal, the region roughly divided between West Bengal, Tripura and Bangladesh.* Bengali people, a major linguistic group in South Asia* Bengali Hindu people, the ethnic group native to eastern India....
classic Tuntunir Boi or The Tailor Bird's Book. Published by Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
from Sukia Street it was printed by Haricharan Manna at the Kantik Press on Cornwallis Street and priced at 8 annas. Illustrated by line drawing sketches by the author it is a collection of twenty-seven folk tales for children. 'In his brief preface to the volume, Raychaudhuri writes of a story-telling habit prevalent among household women in certain parts of eastern Bengal [the author probably refers to Mymensingh which had been his desh or native region and a province particularly rich in folklore]. At the end of the day, when little children tend to drop off to sleep before having their suppers, affectionate nurses, mothers, aunts or grandmothers try to keep their sleepy-eyed wards amused with pleasing stories. The enchantment of the tales help keep the children diverted while the women feed them playfully. The tales of the book are drawn from that treasury of oral nursery lore, from a tradition steeped in the tenderness of motherly affection. The stories are short and entertaining – as would suit the patience and understanding of little folks - and peopled with a stock of native characters: the sprightly tailor-bird, the stupid tiger, the little sparrow, the wily fox, the clever cat, the hunch-back woman or the foolish weaver.'
Samples of the Title Page and Page 8 of the text show us how its form was.
Sandesh
SandeshSandesh (magazine)
Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
, the monthly magazine of Upendrakishore first came into print in 1913 ( Boishakh
Boishakh
Boishakh is the first month in the Bangla Calendar used in Bangladesh and parts of India.Baisakh is also the first month in the Nepali calendar which uses the Bikram Sambat. It is the 2nd month in Hindu calendars following Shalivahana Shaka.The name of the month is derived from the position of...
Issue). Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
was its editor for the first three months. Later after his father’s death (December 20, 1915), he enjoyed its sole editorship for the next eight years. Under his editorship the children’s magazine became a source of scientific information while retaining its usual short stories and poems. But there was a distinct change in the whole approach. The magazine now contained more essays on science and animal kingdom than the former issues with colorful illustrations of poetry. When the issue carried an essay on Strange Crabs, the illustration on the first page was that of a colorful crab. ( Srabon
Srabon
Srabon is the 4th month of the Bangla Calendar. This is also the 2nd month of Barsha season....
1916) When there was an essay on Monstrous Spiders the illustration was that of a spider. (Agrahayana
Agrahayana
Agrahayana or Margashirsha, is a month of the Hindu calendar and Tamil calendar. In India's national civil calendar, Agrahayana is the ninth month of the year, beginning on 22 November and ending on 21 December. Since Vedic times, this month is known as Maargashirsha after the Nakshatra ...
1916) This no doubt enhanced the scientific flavor of this little magazine. Ray gave his readers brief sketches of famous personalities like Mungo Park
Mungo Park
Mungo Park may refer to:* Mungo Park * Mungo Park * Mungo Park * Mungo Park Medal, an award* John Mungo Park, WW2 fighter pilot* Mungo National Park...
, David Livingston
David Livingston
David Livingston is an American television producer and director. He is mostly known for his involvement in the writing and production of the various modern Star Trek franchises....
, Columbus
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "Colombo". It most commonly refers to:*Christopher Columbus*Columbus, Ohio, United StatesColumbus may also refer to:- People :* Bartholomew Columbus, younger brother of Christopher...
, Iowan, Sir Philip Sidney, Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
, John Pounds
John Pounds
John Pounds was a teacher and altruist born in Portsmouth, and the man most responsible for the creation of the concept of Ragged schools...
, Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
, Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
, Galileo and Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
.
The magazine continued in spite of the briefly spaced interval between Upendrakishore’s death and Sukumar's, being managed by a number of family members, chief among them Sukumar’s brother, Subinay. The Inner Eye
The Inner Eye
The Inner Eye is a documentary film on the blind artist Binod Bihari Mukherjee by Satyajit Ray.-External links:*...
throws light on the subsequent years of the magazine through Satyajit’s association with it.
‘Satyajit and Sandesh were mixed up in two other ways. With his widowed grandmother he spent hours sorting out and cleaning old picture blocks in her room on the first floor. And with his uncle Subinay,Sukumar’s younger brother who managed the press after his death, he would discuss Sandesh’s paper requirements. Books of paper samples, sent from Germany, lay in his uncle’s room on the second floor. They had a wonderful range of textures. His uncle would hand him one and say: ‘Take a look inside. Which ones shall we order?’ Running his hand over them like an expert, Satyajit would tender his advice. ‘I really imagined the ones I had chosen would be sent from Germany.’
The publication of Sandesh
Sandesh (magazine)
Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
came to an end for a while when the firm collapsed, only to be revived by Satyajit Ray in 1961.
Abol Tabol
Abol TabolAbol Tabol
Abol tabol ; ; is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons...
, an anthology of Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
’s poems was first published in parts in a number of issues in Sandesh
Sandesh (magazine)
Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
. First published in 1923, it is a selection on Nonsense verse
Nonsense verse
Nonsense verse is a form of light, often rhythmical verse, usually for children, depicting peculiar characters in amusing and fantastical situations. It is whimsical and humorous in tone and tends to employ fanciful phrases and meaningless made-up words. Nonsense verse is closely related to...
influenced by Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
and Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
. Sukumar was on his deathbed while preparing the dummy for this book, and his awareness of the nearness of his end impresses itself on some of the verse. Extensive work has been done on the making of this text by Siddhartha Ghosh, who writes of how, to keep to the dummy, the author had to add a few short poems. ‘Likewise, silhouette-tailpieces also first appeared on the dummy. One common feature of all these sketches is that all of them represent some kind of tug-of-war, push-or-pull, or strained relationship.’
In terms of book design too, Abol Tabol
Abol Tabol
Abol tabol ; ; is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons...
was unique – the book was bound at the top and the pages had to be flipped over as in a letter-writing pad. Again, Sandesh
Sandesh (magazine)
Sandesh is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Raychowdhury in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in...
was printed in white-print and as such half-tone blocks could be accommodated. But Abol Tabol
Abol Tabol
Abol tabol ; ; is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons...
was supposed to be printed on antique and accordingly Sukumar discarded all the old blocks (the ones that had been used in Sandesh) and replaces them with line blocks. In some pages of the dummy, Sukumar instructed the printer to cut out a portion of the block to accommodate the heading as indicated by him. Abol Tabol
Abol Tabol
Abol tabol ; ; is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19 September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons...
was published 9 days after the author’s death on 10 September 1923.
Others
Besides the publications mentioned above, other works published include storybooks written byKuladaranjan (Satyajit’s uncle) and published by U. Ray and Sons who retold the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
and the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
in Bengali, and a great many Indian legends
Legends
Legends are historical narratives, symbolic representations of folk belief.Legends may also refer to:-Music:*Legend , a 1984 album*Legends , a 1998 album...
and folk-tales; also corresponding with Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
’s widow and obtaining the rights to translate his works into Bengali gratis. An early advertisement by the firm of such work can be seen here.
Print Samples
Expertise in photo processes meant that U. Ray and Sons produced the best colour plates in Calcutta during its existence. Examples to be found include the colour plates in Ramananda Chatterjee's Picture Albums - The Mendicant, Ahalya, Gandhari.External links
- Sukumar Ray: 1987 Documentary by Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
. - Satyajit Ray : Part One of Documentary by Goutam Ghose.
- Satyajit Ray : Part Two of Documentary by Goutam Ghose.
- Sukumar Ray Shishu Sahitya Samagra Online
- Recent Sandesh News
- U. Ray Print Samples
- Official Website of Children's Books from Bengal: A Documentation (Part I, till 1910)
- Documentary Footage Satyajit Ray on U. Ray and Sons
- Satyajit Ray on Upendrakishore Ray and Sukumar Ray
- Sandesh Building Demolished