The history of the children’s periodical in Bengal can be seen as a narrative of the evolving idea of childhood and juvenile reading practices. As an ephemeral cultural commodity, it recorded the various contentious ways in which generations of Bengalis responded to colonialism and anti-colonialism, nationalist pride and transnational exposure, communalism and social unity, war and natural disasters, Independence and Partition. In all of these cultural and literary responses, the child-appropriateness or child-suitability of texts was a central question. Across the nineteenth and twentieth century, as childhood literacy increased with the expansion of primary and secondary education, literary concerns pertaining to children’s holistic development such as their reading habits, their access to good texts and the growth of their literary taste became important topics of debate in the public sphere. The period 1818 – 1950 saw a prolific output of children’s magazines in the Bangla language which experimented with diverse styles, genres, concerns and themes.
As a PhD student working on this rare corpus of texts, the greatest challenge so far has been to locate the periodicals in existing archives. As the following list shows, government libraries like the National Library in Kolkata or the British Library in London only host a small percent of the archive. The bulk of this material is stored across small neighborhood or local libraries. Much of this material even in these libraries are lost, or are facing a sad extinction in the absence of readers, scholars, archivists and digitizers’ attention. Many of them are hidden in different open-access websites, but a lack of standardized digitizations makes it very hard to locate them. This resource article is my preliminary attempt to share the location of the periodicals in the few archives I visited over summer, monsoon and autumn, 2023 in the hope of finding them more readers.
Key to Symbols and Abbreviations:
BSP: Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Kolkata
CHNGR: Chandannagar Pustakagar, Chandannagar
BALI: Bali Sadharan Granthagar, Howrah
MAIH: Moihari Sadharan Pathagar, Andul, Howrah
SOAS: School of Oriental and African Studies, London
CSSS: Centre for Studies in Social Science, Kolkata
?: Material has not been traced.
*: Found in Library catalogue, but missing
| Name of the Periodical | Editor | Year Published | Volumes and Issues | Archive |
| Āgamanī | Sureshchandra Samajpati | 1919 | 1 | BSP CHNGR |
| Āmāder Lekhā (Barshik) from Bolpur | Santiniketan Praktan Chhatra Samiti | 1948 | ? | ? |
| Āmār Deś | Shishirkumar Mitra | 1921 | Vol.1– vol.6 | National Library * Vol. 1 digitized: https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/amaara-daesa-1ma-barasa-1-12-samkhayaa |
| Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4(issue 1 and 2), Vol. 6 (only issue 1), | Internet archive: https://archive.org/search?query=aamar+desh | |||
| Vol.6 | MAIH | |||
| Vol.1, Vol.5, 6 | CHNGR | |||
| Vol.2 –vol. 3, vol. 4 (#1–2), Vol. 6 #1 | BSP | |||
| Āṅgur | Md. Sahidullah | 1920 | Vol. 1 (1–5, 7–9, 11–12) | BSP |
| Añjali from Chattagram | Rajeswar Gupta | 1898 | Vol. 1 | BSP CSSS: https://www.fid4sa.de/themen/digitale-textsammlungen/bengali/anjali |
| Añjali | Bidhubhusan Basu | 1920 | Vol.1 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 1 — Vol. 2 | National library | |||
| Aruṇ from Rangpur | Siteshchandra Khan | 1930 | Vol. 1 (1—11) | BSP |
| Atithi | Pramathanath Roy | 1902 | Vol. 1 (2,5,9) | BSP |
| Bālak | Jnanodanandini Debi | 1885 | Vol. 1 | BSP MAIH |
| Vol.1 (1–2) | Digitized by National Library: https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/baalaka-1-bhaaga-samkhayaa-1-2 | |||
| Bālak | Rev. J.M Duncan, Lalitlochan Dutta | 1912 | Vol.1 | BALI* |
| Vol.3 | Internet archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.338401/page/n1/mode/2up | |||
| Vol. 7–8 | BSP | |||
| Bālakbandhu | Keshabchandra Sen | 1878 | Vol. 1 (8–18, 20–22) | BSP |
| Bālakbandhu (Nabaparjay) | Same | 1891 | Vol 1 (8–9) | BSP |
| Bālyasakhā | Bishnucharan Chattopadhyay | 1908 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Balyaśram | Taraprasanna Ghosh | 1910 | Vol 1 (3) | BALI * |
| Barṣik Śiśusāthī | Rameshcandra Majumdar, Jagadananda Ray, Bijaychandra Majumdar, Rabindranath Sen, Karthik Chandra Das, Rajkumar Chakraborty (published by Ashutosh Library) | 1926 College Square, Kolkata, Patuatuli, Dhaka Andarkilla, Chattagram | Vol. 1–vol. 51 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 3, Vol. 7– Vol. 10 | SOAS | |||
| Vol. 2 | National library | |||
| Vol 1, Vol. 2, vol. 8, Vol. 11, Vol. 12, Vol. 14, vol. 17 | CHNGR | |||
| Vol. 16 | https://southasiacommons-net.proxy.uchicago.edu/artifacts/2350705/barshik-sishu-sathi/3254565/ | |||
| Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 6 | BSP | |||
| Beṇu | Bhupendrakishore Rakshit Ray, Sunilchandra Sengupta, Prasannakumar Pal | 1927 | Vol. 3, Vol. 4 (1), Vol. 5 (1) | BALI |
| Vol. 5 | CHNGR | |||
| Vol. 3 (4), Vol. 5 (4, 6) | BSP | |||
| Bhāratī o Bālak | Swarnakumari Debi, Dwijendranath Thakur | 1886 | Vol. 1– Vol. 6 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 3– Vol. 7 | CHNGR | |||
| Vol. 1—Vol. 7 | BSP | |||
| Bratī Bālak | Dhirananda ray (school students of Viswa Bharati) | 1929 | Vol. 1— Vol. 2 | BSP * |
| Caitālī | Bibhutibhusan Choudhary (Prakash Press) | 1929 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Chhātrarañjan | Sraojkumar Ray, Umaprasad Chakraborty (Lakshmi Printing Press) | 1916 | Vol. 1 (1–5) | BSP |
| Chhātrasakhā | Dibakar Bhattacharya, Manamathanath Basu | 1907 | Vol. 1 (1–6) | BSP |
| Chhātrasakhā | C.M Patterson, Youngman’s Christian Association | 1928 | Vol. 7 (3) | SOAS |
| Vol. 1 (1), Vol. 2, Vol. 3 | BSP | |||
| Chhotoder Bārṣikī | Jogendranath Gupta | 1930 | Vol. 1–vol. 2 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 5 | SOAS | |||
| Vol. 2 | CHNGR | |||
| Galpagāthā | Lalitmohan Ghosh | 1929 | Vol. 1 (1–5) | BSP |
| Galpārati | Phanindranath Pal | 1930 | Vol. 1 | CHNGR BSP |
| Halkhātā | Ramprasad mitra, Asim Dutta | 1941 | Vol. 1 | Uttarpara Jaikrishna Library |
| Hulloṛ | Fayez Ahmed | 1950 | Vol. 1 | Bangla Academy, Dhaka |
| Jādughar | Girijakumar basu, Premankur Atarthi | 1927 | Vol. 1–Vol. 3 | BSP |
| Jñanoday | Ramchandra Mitra, Krishnadhan mitra | 1832 | Vol. 1 | India Office Library National Library |
| Jyotiringan | Calcutta Tract Society | 1869 | Vol. 1–Vol.4 | BSP CSSS |
| Kaiśorāk | Jogendranath Gupta, Sudhangsu Gupta | 1937 | Vol. 1–Vol.7 | CHNGR, 1937–1940 (Vol 1–Vol.4) vols available in BL EAP: https://eap.bl.uk/collection/EAP341-1/search?page=95 |
| Khokākhuku | Satyacharan Chakraborty, Kaliprasanna Dasgupta | 1923 | Vol. 1– Vol. 2 | BSP |
| Vol. 7 | Southasiacommons: https://southasiacommons-net.proxy.uchicago.edu/search/?org=sri-debendranath-bhattacharyya%3ASri+Debendranath+Bhattacharyya&collection=sri-debendranath-bhattacharyya%3Akhokakhuku_acccf83d%3AKhoka-Khuku&page=2 | |||
| 1930 (4 issues) | Dhulokhela blog https://dhulokhela.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_586.html https://dhulokhela.blogspot.com/2019/03/khoka-khuku-1336-ashar.html | |||
| Kiśor | Calcutta Christian textbook society, J.M duncan, Lalitlochan Dutta | 1921 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Kiśor | Kamkshiprasad Chattopadhyay | 1937 | 1941 | BL * |
| 1948 | CSSS | |||
| Kiśor (First Daily) | Khagendranath Sen | 1948 | ? | ? |
| Kiśorī | Sudha Sen | 1931 | Vol 3 | Uttarpara Jaikrishna Library |
| Mā | Hemendrakumar Sengupta | 1924 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Maktab | Sakhawat hussain | 1930 | Vol. 1 | BSP * |
| Mānik Mela | Khagendranath Mitra | 1947 | Vol. 1 | Chaitanya Library |
| Maṇikāñchan | Sudhangshukumar Gupta | 1946 | Vol. 1–Vol.2 | Chaitanya Library |
| Mās Paylā | Kshitishchandra Bhattacharya, Akhil Neogi, 114/1A Amherst Street, Mash Payla Press | 1928 | Vol. 1–3, Vol. 8 (1,2) | Chaitanya Library |
| 1927 | Dhulokhela Blog: https://dhulokhela.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_899.html | |||
| Vol. 3 | CHGNR | |||
| Vol. 1–3 | BSP | |||
| Milan | Milan sabha, taraprasanna Ghosh, Priyanath Ghosal | 1922 | Vol. 1 (1–3) | BSP |
| Moucāk | Sudhirchandra Sarkar, Supriya Sarkar | 1920 | Vol. 1–-Vol. 62 | Chaitanya, Library vol. 1 missing |
| Vol. 15, Vol. 16 (3 issues), vol. 17 (10 issues), vol. 20 (6 issues), vol. 26 (9 issues), vol. 27, vol. 29, vol. 30, vol. 31 | South asia archive: https://southasiacommons-net.proxy.uchicago.edu/search/?q=mouchak&page=1 | |||
| Vol. 16,17 | BSP | |||
| Vol. 41 | SOAS | |||
| Vol. 1—Vol. 8 | National Library * | |||
| Vol. 17, Vol. 45–Vol.55 | Uttarpara Jaikrishna Library | |||
| Vol. 11–vol. 12, Vol. 15–Vol. 17Vol. 20 (1)Vol. 21Vol. 23–vol. 29 | CHNGR | |||
| Vol. 15, issue 4Vol. 16 issue 3,4,6,8,9 | EAP BL | |||
| Vol. 55, 7(missing Baisakh issue), 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 8, 32, 16 (1 n 3), 21 (4 n 6), 25, 39 (2,6,11,12) | Internet archive | |||
| V.39,no.(1-12),1365; v.40,no.(1-12),1366; v.41,no.(1-12),1367; v.42,no.(1-12),1368; v.43,no.(1-12),1369; v.44,no.(1-12),1370; v.45,no.(1-12),1371; v.46,no.(1-12),1372 | Calcutta University library | |||
| Mukul | Shibnath shastri, Hemchandra Sarkar, Mukul Karyalaya | 1895 | Vol. 3–Vol. 5Vol. 7—Vol. 17Vol. 19 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 5(issue 5,6,8), Vol. 6 (11)Vol.7 (issue 2, 4)Vol. 8(issue 5,6,7) Vol. 6, 7,8,9,11,14,15, 22,23 | EAP : https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP341-5-576 https://hviewer.bl.uk/IamsHViewer/Default.aspx?mdark=ark:/81055/vdc_100139973232.0x000001 | |||
| Vol. 1–Vol.20 | National library | |||
| Vol. 1, Vol. 4–Vol.6, Vol. 8–Vol. 10, Vol. 12, Vol. 14, Vol. 15, Vol. 20 | BSP | |||
| Mukul | Prabhangshukumar Gupta | 1925 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Mukul Nabaparjaya | Shakuntala Debi | 1928 | Vol. 8 | SOAS |
| Vol.3,16 | BL: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP921-7-2-86 https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP921-7-2-87 | |||
| Vol. 1–4 | BSP | |||
| CSSS | ||||
| Naba Ālok | Purnachandra Dey, Panchugopal Dey, Gobindalal Dey | 1931 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Pāpiyā | Bibhabati Sen | 1927 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Pārbaṇī | Nagendranath Gangopadhyay | 1918 | Vol. 3 | Chaitanya Library |
| Pather Alo from Bagnan | Rabindra Gupta | 1949 | ? | ? |
| Pāṭhśālā | Narendra Deb, Surya Bhattacharya | 1937 | Vol. 1–Vol.4Vol. 7–Vol. 14 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 1, Vol. 3–Vol. 5, Vol. 7, Vol. 8 | BL * | |||
| Vol. 3, vol. 5–Vol. 6 | BALI | |||
| Vol. 4 | Uttarpara Jaikrishna Library | |||
| Vol. 1—Vol. 4 | CHNGR | |||
| Pāttārhi | Birendranath Ray | 1927 | Vol. 1–Vol. 2 | BSP |
| Phuler Beṇu | Prabhatkumar Basu, Gunendranath Mukhopadhyay, Shishirchandra Basu | 1926 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Prahlād | Brahman Raksha Sabha, Shrishchandra Sharma | 1925 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Phuljhuri from Nadia | Muhammad Atikullah | 1937 | ? | ? |
| Prakr̥itī | Debendranath Sen | 1907 | Vol. 1–-Vol. 8 | National Library |
| Vol. 1—Vol. 7 | BSP | |||
| Rājbhog | Satyendrasankar Dasgupta, Sudhangsu Gupta | 1924 | Vol. 1 (2–4, 9–12, ), Vol. 2( 1–10) | BSP |
| Rāmdhanu | Bisweswar Bhattacharya, Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Kshitindranath Bhattacharya, Ramdhanu Karyalay | 1928 | Vol. 1–Vol. 5 | BSP |
| Vol. 5–Vol. 5 | BALI | |||
| Raṅmaśāl (Annual) | Premankur AtarthiCharuchandra RayMohanlal Gangopadhyay | 1921 | Vol. 1–Vol. 3 | Chaitanya Library Only 1928 Saradiya in BSP |
| Raṅmaśāl (Monthly: Separate publication)Nabaparjay | Hemendrakumar Roy, Kamakshiprasad Chattopadhyay, Debiprasada Chattopadhyay | 1936 | Vol. 2–Vol. 10 | BSP CSSS |
| Vol. 11 | Southasiaarchive: https://southasiacommons-net.proxy.uchicago.edu/search/?org=abinash-chandra-sarkar%3AAbinash%20Chandra%20Sarkar&collection=abinash-chandra-sarkar%3Arangmashal_e17db31f%3ARangmashal | |||
| Reṇu | Girijakumar Basu | 1903 | Vol. 1 (1) | BSP |
| Rūpkathā | Rabiranjan Mitra, Samarendranath Majumdar, Ajitkumar Chattopadhyay, Krishnachandra Majumdar | 1940 | Vol. 1–2 | BSP |
| Sādhanā from Bhatpara | Madhusudan Ray | 1948 | ? | ? |
| Sakhā | Pramadacharan Sen, Sibnath Shastri, Annadacharan Sen, Sakha Karyalay | 1883–1894 | Vol. 1–10 | BSP CSSS |
| Vol. 5,6,7,8,11,12 | BL: https://hviewer.bl.uk/IamsHViewer/Default.aspx?mdark=ark:/81055/vdc_100139973232.0x000001 | |||
| Vol. 4–vol.5, Vol. 8–vol.11 | Chaitanya Library | |||
| Vol. 1— Vol. 12 | National Library | |||
| Sakhā o Sathī | Bhubanmohan Ray | 1894 | Vol. 1– Vol 4 | BSP |
| Vol. 2 | Archive.org: https://ia601409.us.archive.org/1/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.289984/2015.289984.Baishakh–.pdf | |||
| Vol. 2– Vol. 3 | Chaitanya Library | |||
| Sandeś | Upendrakishore Raychowdhury, Sukumar Ray, Subinoy Ray | 1913 | Vol. 1–Vol. 11, vol. 13 | Chaitanya Library |
| Vol. 1–Vol.4, Vol. 6–Vol. 14 | BSP | |||
| Vol. 1–Vol. 14 | CSSS | |||
| Vol. 4–Vol. 14 | National Library | |||
| Sandeś nabaparjay | Subinoy Roy, Sudhabindu Biswas | 1931 | Vol. 1–Vol. 3 | BSP CSSS |
| Vol. 1–vol. 62 | Chaitanya Library | |||
| Satyapradīp | Christian Vernacular Education Society of India | 1860 | Vol. 1 | BL |
| Śiksha | Vol. 3, 4,5,6, 7,8, 9,10,11,12 | EAP: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP341-5-580 | ||
| śiśu | Amritlal Bandyopadhyay, Baradakanta Majumdar | 1912 | Vol. 1, Vol. 2 | Chaitanya, CSSS |
| Vol. 1–-Vol. 5 | BSP | |||
| Vol. 3 | Bangla Academy, Dhaka | |||
| Śiśu Bhāratī | Jogendranath Gupta | 1933 | Vol. 1–Vol. 11 | Chaitanya Library* |
| Vol. 1–Vol. 9 | CHNGR | |||
| Śiśu Saogāt | Md. Nasiruddin | 1938 | Vol. 3–Vol. 6 | Bangla Academy, Dhaka |
| Śiśu sāthī | Ashutosh Dhar | 1922 | Vol. 1–Vol.3, Vol. 30–Vol. 50 | Chaitanya Library* |
| 1961–1962 | EAP: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP781-1-5-130 | |||
| Vol. 16 | Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.291097/page/n43/mode/2up | |||
| Vol. 44–Vol. 49 | Uttarpara Jaikrishna Library | |||
| Vol. 9, Vol. 11, Vol. 12, Vol. 14–Vol. 22, Vol. 24–Vol. 27, | CHNGR * | |||
| Vol. 3–Vol. 8 | BSP | |||
| Sopān from Dhaka | Hemendranath Dutta | 1910 | Vol. 2 | CHNGR * |
| Vol. 2–Vol. 4 | BSP | |||
| śuktārā | Satishchandra gangyopadhyay | 1936 | Vol. 1 | BL |
| śuktārā | Madhusudan Majumdar | 1947 | ? | ? |
| Taruṇ | Mechhchher Ali | 1928 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Taruṇ ālo | Barendrasundar Chattopadhyay, Hirendra Bandyopadhyay, Dhiren Dhar, pulin saha | 1930 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Taruṇ Bhārat | Birendrachandra sen | 1921 | Vol. 1 | BSP * |
| Taruṇ Lipī | Amrendralal Mukhopadhyay | 1926 | Vol. 1 | BSP * |
| Taruṇ Patra | Md, Fazlul Karim mallik, Ahmad hussain | 1925 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| 1932–34 EAP: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP341-1-1436 | ||||
| Taruṇ Patra | Tili Sangha, Bishnucharan Sen, Bijaykumar Pal | ? | ? | ? |
| Toshinī from Dhaka | Ankulchandra Shastri | 1910 | Vol. 2–vol. 10, Vol. 14 | BSP |
| ūshā | Upendranath bhattacharya | 1904 | Vol. 1–vol. 2 | BSP National Library |
| ūshā | Satyaprasanna Bhattacharya | 1930 | Vol. 1 | BSP |
| Yātrā | Bengal Boy Scout Sangha, Nripendranath basu | 1924 | Vol. 1, 3, 8 | Uttarpara Jaikrishna Library |
Sources:
Digital catalogues of Internet Archive, British Library, SOAS, southasiacommons.net (previously southasiaarchive)
Print and card catalogues of all libraries mentioned in the piece.
Sen, Nabendu. Bangla Shishu Sahitya: Tatva, Tathya, Rup, o Bishleshan. Kolkata: Puthipatra, 1992. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006749812.
“Official Website of Children’s Books from Bengal : A Documentation Part – I (Till 1910).” Accessed December 16, 2022. http://bengalichildrensbooks.in.
Babula, Ruhula Amina. Bāṃlā Śiśusāhitya. Dhaka: Chayabithi, 2018.
Mitra, Khagendranath. Shatabdir Shishu Sahitya. Bidyaday Library, 1967.
Mukhopadyay, Asoknath. Early Bengali Serials, 1818-1950 : A Shared Database of Library Holdings Worldwide. Kolkata: K P Bagchi, 2004.Khan, and Khan, Isaraila. Pūrba Bāṅalāra Sāmaẏikapatra, 1947-1971. Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 1999.
Author Bio
Titas Bose is one of the co-founders of ACLiSA. She works on children’s periodicals from colonial and postcolonial South Asia, and is generally interested in print cultures, readership practices, genre histories, translation methods, identity formulations and child-adult collaborations within and without children’s literature.