Thursday, February 12, 2009
Bengali Language Collection in National Library of India
The library has 85,000 books in its Bengali collection. The collection contains very rare and valuable books as well as periodicals published from the last quarter of the 18th century. Early Bengali dramas and novels are well represented in this collection. The collection has many rare items like the manuscripts of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhaya, Bibuti Bhushan Bandaopadhaya, Jibanananda Das and Visnu De; 154 letters of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose written to his nephew Sri Asok Nath Bose and letters to Sarat Chandra Bose are also available in the collection. The collection has the complete set of Ravindranath Tagore's works, except a few of his early works. This includes 190 first editions of Tagore's works.
Some of the rare and important works in this collection are : A grammar of the Bengal Language (1778) by Nathaniel Brassey, which is the earliest printed book in Bengali, Henry Forstar's 'A vocabulary in two parts', English and Bangalee (1799), William Carrey's Dialogues, intended to facilitate the acquiring of the Bengali language ( 1801), Ram Ram Basu's Raja Pratapaditya Charitra …(1801), Mrityunjay Vidyalankar's Batris Simhansan (1802), Ramayana -- translated by Kirteebas and published in five volumes, Mahabharat translated by Kashee Ram Dass (1802), Chandicharan Munshi's Tota Itihas (1805), Jayanarayan Ghosal's, Sri Karunanidhanavilasa (1814), William Carey's Dictionary of the Bengali Language in which the words are traced to their origin and their various meanings given -- 2 Volumes( 1815-1825). The collection has 400 titles of Bengali periodicals including many rare 19th century periodicals. Digdarshan (1818) first Bengali monthly and the first issue of The Samachar Darpan (1831) -- the first Bengali weekly can be seen in the collection.
The library has published a four volume catalogue of Bengali Books.
Some of the rare and important works in this collection are : A grammar of the Bengal Language (1778) by Nathaniel Brassey, which is the earliest printed book in Bengali, Henry Forstar's 'A vocabulary in two parts', English and Bangalee (1799), William Carrey's Dialogues, intended to facilitate the acquiring of the Bengali language ( 1801), Ram Ram Basu's Raja Pratapaditya Charitra …(1801), Mrityunjay Vidyalankar's Batris Simhansan (1802), Ramayana -- translated by Kirteebas and published in five volumes, Mahabharat translated by Kashee Ram Dass (1802), Chandicharan Munshi's Tota Itihas (1805), Jayanarayan Ghosal's, Sri Karunanidhanavilasa (1814), William Carey's Dictionary of the Bengali Language in which the words are traced to their origin and their various meanings given -- 2 Volumes( 1815-1825). The collection has 400 titles of Bengali periodicals including many rare 19th century periodicals. Digdarshan (1818) first Bengali monthly and the first issue of The Samachar Darpan (1831) -- the first Bengali weekly can be seen in the collection.
The library has published a four volume catalogue of Bengali Books.
posted by nobletrader
@ 8:21 AM
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