print culture

Displaying 1 - 7 of 7
Swati Moitra
in Image Gallery
Swati Moitra
The Diamond Library premises stand proudly on the busy thoroughfare that is the present day Chitpur Road (Rabindra Sarani), an elegant counterpoint to the glitzy jatra companies (or operas, as they are called) that dot the area. It is impossible to miss the signboard that proudly announces the name…
in Interview
Swati Moitra
The historic premises of the Mahesh Library on the present day Chitpur Road, despite its rich legacy, bears no signboard announcing its name or the date of its establishment. A casual visitor might pass it by, paying no attention to the elegant wooden panels that bear a wide variety of books,…
in Interview
Swati Moitra
Colonial Calcutta is often described in terms of the duality of the ‘black’ and ‘white’ towns—the ‘native’ quarters, with its cramped streets and bustling bazaars, and the ‘sahib’ quarters (the area between Chowringhee Road, Park Street, Theater Road, and Wood Street) with wide roads and neo-…
in Article
Swati Moitra
The banyan tree (bat in Bengali; Ficus benghalensis), it is said, derives its name from the Indian banyan or merchant, by the way of Portuguese and English travelers who witnessed Indian merchants resting, praying, or conducting business under the shade of the said tree. Henry Yule and Arthur Coke…
in Overview
Swati Moitra
'Battala literature' is a phrase used in modern day scholarship to indicate the various products of the printing presses that had emerged in and around Battala in Calcutta in the nineteenth century, primarily in Bengali. The phrase has a certain association with poor or dubious quality, which…
in Module
Swati Moitra
Selected Bibliography   Biswas, Adris, ed. Battalar Boi. Vol. I & II. Calcutta: Gangchil, 2011.   Biswas, Adris and Acharya, Anil, eds. Bangalir Battala: A Collection of Writings, Reprints and Paintings Related to Battala. Calcutta: Anushtup, 2013.   Darnton, Robert. "Literary Surveillance In…
in Bibliography