Nirnaysagar Press and Jawaji Dadaji
Nityanand Misra
On Tuesday, 23 May 2017 06:04:51 UTC+8, Arvind_Kolhatkar wrote:
A book in Marathi, ’निर्णयसागर अक्षर साधना’, authored by PB Kulkarni, was printed in 1967 on the occasion of the centenary of the Nirnaysagar Press. More than a half of this book is devoted the lives of its founder, Jawaji Dadaji, his two sons Tukaram Jawaji and Pandurang Jawaji and Pandurang Jawaji's daughter-in-law Laxmibai Jawaji, who, between the four of them, guided the printing and publishing business of Nirnaysagar for a century from its founding by Jawaji Dadaji in 1867.
Many of us have seen a text like the following on the first page of a Nirnaysagar publication:
जयपुरमहाराजाश्रितेन पण्डितव्रजलालसूनुना पण्डित-दुर्गाप्रसादेन, मुम्बापुरवासिना परबोपाह्व-पाण्डुरङ्गात्मजकाशिनाथशर्मणा च
संशोधित: ।
स च
मुम्बय्यां निर्णयसागराख्ययन्त्रालये तदधिपतिना मुद्राक्षरैरङ्कयित्वा
प्राकाश्यं नीत: ।
१८९०
(अस्य ग्रन्थस्य पुनर्मुद्रणादिविषये सर्वथा जावजी दादाजी इत्यस्यैवाधिकार: ।)
The founder of this enterprise, Jawaji Dadaji, was born in a poor family in Umarkhadi, Mumbai in 1839. He lost his father when he was very young. As there was no other earning member of the family, Jawaji Dadaji, whose education had not progressed beyond writing his own name in the Marathi alphabet, had to look for a job to support his family since the age of 8. He started doing odd jobs like selling fruit from door to door. At that time, Mr. Thomas Graham of the American Mission Press in the Bhendi Bazar locality took him on for the job of cleaning and polishing the types in the Press on a salary of Rs. 2 per month. Jawaji took it because he had nothing better to do but soon started diligently learning what he could of the craft of type-casting and matrices. Graham, who had taken a liking for this industrious young boy, taught him all he knew of this work. In 1857 the Mission Press was sold to the Times of India and Jawaji went over to the Times of India. He spent five years there and then joined the newly-established Induprakash Press of Laxmanshastri Halbe and Keshvshastri Gadgil. After a year there, another press, The Oriental Press, offered his a job on a substantial salary of Rs 30 per month. By now he had become an expert maker of matrices and had started earning a name for his skill and the beauty of his matrices and types.
By now the ambition of establishing his own type foundry business had taken root in his mind. In 1864, in partnership with another expert craftsman Ranuji Aaroo, he started his own type foundry in his tenement with a small capital of Rs 700, loaned to him without any security by a Marwari money-lender by name Khuma Seth.
Ganpat Krishnaji, one of the earliest native printers in Mumbai, had been printing by the litho process a Marathi panchang since 1831. This panchang had become quite popular but discontinued after Ganpat Krishnaji's death in 1860. Jawaji in 1867 decided to bring out his panchang, since then called the Nirnaysagar panchang by using moveable type, instead of the litho process. The beauty of this panchang soon won over a large market and Jawaji's own publishing business took off with a flying start. He soon turned his attention to printing of popular stotras and, from there, with the help of scholars like Pandit Durgaprasad of Jaipur, Kashinathshastri Parab and Vasudevshastri Panshikar graduated into bring out Sanskrit kavya and other shastric literature. Several volumes of the series of Kavyamala bear witness to this. In the area of Marathi literature, he brought out several books like Navaneet, an anthology of Marathi saint-poets compiled by Parshuram Tatya Godbole and Kavyethihas-sangraha, a series devoted to old Marathi literature and historical accounts. In this he was assisted by well-known scholars of those days like Rao Bahadur KN Sane, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar and VK Oak.
Jawaji died in 1892 but his business was, after his, carried on equally ably first by his eldest son Tukaram Jawaji and, after his death, by his brother Pandurang Jawaji. In the centenary year of 1967, Tukaram's daughter-in-law Laxmibai was at the helm.
The centenary volume carries the following note Witten by Dr V Raghavan:
Nirnaysagar Press, Bombay, occupies a unique position in the history of Sanskrit leaving and education in this country. There had been efforts and organizations in different centres like Banaras and Calcutta tor bringing into print Sanskrit Classics which had been preserved for long in manuscripts in paper and palm-leaf; but when we consider the stages of improvement from the lithograph prints of the earliest stages in Banaras to the excellent and attractive editions of the Nirnaysagar Press, Bombay, one can realize the extent of advancement in the art of printing and the facility and aid which the printed books gave to the of Sanskrit study, not only in the institutions — schools, colleges and Universities — but also in the traditional Pathashalas and in the houses of Pandits, In fact, Sanskrit study and education in the classics of Sanskrit literature may be said to have grown with the publications of the Kavyamala and other Sanskrit works brought out by the Nirnaysagar Press.
The history of the Nirnaysagar Press and its Founder Jawaji would read like a romance to those of this generation who do not know how that Press came to be founded. Jawaji came of the humblest family which could afford no education and what he achieved contributed perhaps most significantly to the spread of knowledge in the three fields of Sanskrit, Marathi and Gujarati. He started life rubbing types for Rs. 2/- a ninth and became eventually the Founder-Proprietor of the most outstanding Devanagari Press of the country, having on its establishment 400 workers. With his experience in types and type-casting, Jawaji founded a type foundry of his own in 1864 and five years later established the Nirnaysagar Press where he printed works with the types cast by him. As different from the Devanagari of Uttar Pradesh and Bengal, those of Jawaji's had a distinct character, shape and beauty of their own in all the sizes and in Roman and Antique. These Nirnaysagar Publications - say of the Brahmasutras or of the Bhagavad Gita - with several commentaries and the series of diverse types used in them, with variations text, quotations, pratikas, etc., had a distinct personality of their own with the text and commentaries clearly demarcated and the ink-impression very distinct and free frown diffusion and the whole thing very pleasing to the eye and helpful to the mind of the reader.
Through the Kavyamala, both in its works-series and in the collection of minor works called Guchchakas, the Nirnaysagar Press had brought into print almost all the leading works in poetry, drama and criticism and had also unearthed many a rare minor work lying in manuscript collections in Jaipur, Tanjore and other centres. But for these publications, the knowledge of Sanskrit literature and its contributions, their variety, etc. would not have been realized by the scholars. The work of the Press became much enlarged by the anxiety of outside bodies and scholars desiring to take advantage of its excellent typography and getting their works printed at that Press, the most notable example of this being the Valmiki Ramayana and the Mahabharata of the Southern recension and works Of Dvaita Vedanta undertaken by the pioneers of Kumbhakonam who sought the help of the Nirnaysagar Press for their publications. Several Jain works were also brought out through the Nirnaysagar Press. In several Shastras, for a long time, the Nirnaysagar editions were the only ones available for teachers and students.
Madhav Deshpande
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and also my Sanskrit blog :
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Also thanks for brief description for us don't know marathi.
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