[INDOLOGY] Clarification: Early 20th century Indian publishers and fonts

Mon May 12 00:24:43 UTC 2025

There is a 587 page Marathi book: निर्णयसागरची अक्षरसाधना by P.B. Kulkarni
[1967] which gives a detailed historical narrative on the Nirnayasagara
Press.

Another useful Marathi book [342+Photographs] by Bapurao Naik is a general
account of the evolution of Devanagari from Brahmi upto modern Devanagari
printing: देवनागरी मुद्राक्षरलेखनकला, Vol 1, 1982, Mumbai.

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:

> Another resource:
>
>
> https://archive.org/details/NirnayaSagarACenturyOfTypeCastingPrintingAndPublishingVinayakYKulkarni
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
>
> On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:
>
>> The attached Marathi account says Javaji Dadaji started a foundry in 1864
>> and started the Nirnayasagar Press in 1869.
>>
>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore,
>> India
>>
>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 11:00 AM Birgit Kellner via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Alessandro Graheli's paper "The Choice of Devanāgarī" in the Festschrift
>>> for Dominik Wujastyk contains very valuable historical data on Devanagari
>>> (and other Indian) typefaces, even though the paper in itself is not mainly
>>> about history, but about rationales for choosing latin script or Devanagari
>>> in contemporary editions.
>>>
>>> Graheli does not give a specific date for the creation of Devanagari
>>> typefaces at the Nirnaya Sagar Press (perhaps there is none), but it would
>>> definitely have been in the late 19th century (the press was founded in
>>> 1869).
>>>
>>> Naik 1971 seems to be the publication to look at:
>>>
>>> Naik, B. S. (1971). Typography of Devanagari. Bombay: Directorate of
>>> Languages.
>>>
>>> Best regards, Birgit Kellner
>>> Am 11.05.25 um 19:39 schrieb Harry Spier via INDOLOGY:
>>>
>>> *External Ema he *: please use links and attachments from trusted
>>> sources only
>>> Thank you Madhav and Andrew,
>>> From the Adishila font webpage given by Andrew Ollett
>>> https://adishila.com/fonts/
>>> *Adishila Samskrta:*  The font design is exact trace of Nirnay Sagar
>>> Press books without modification.
>>> *Adishila:* The font design is inspired by Vanivilas Press Srirangam.
>>> * Adishila Dev*:  The font design is inspired by Nirnay Sagar Press
>>> books.as footnote fonts or title fonts.
>>>
>>> So the fonts exist to simulate the typefaces of  some of the major
>>> devanagari publishers of the early 20th century .  Do we know when the
>>> Nirnaya Sagar Press started producing its typeface. Was it sometime in the
>>> 19th century or is that too early?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Harry Spier
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 9:25 AM Andrew Ollett <andrew.ollett at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> This has come up before on this list, but:
>>>>
>>>> https://adishila.com/fonts/
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, May 11, 2025, 3:20 PM Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
>>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The Nirnaya Sagar Press had its own type foundry. They were preceded
>>>>> in this task by another press in Mumbai run by Ganpat Krishnaji. The Bombay
>>>>> government under the British started publishing Devanagari tracts perhaps
>>>>> using fonts made by some Bengal outfit.
>>>>> While designing my Madhushree [pre-Unicode] font, I had tried to copy
>>>>> the Nirnaya Sagar font. Now perhaps Sanskrit2003 font comes close to
>>>>> Nirnaya Sagar.
>>>>>
>>>>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>>>>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>>>> University of Michigan, Ann  Arbor, Michigan, USA
>>>>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>>>> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore,
>>>>> India
>>>>>
>>>>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 5:32 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <
>>>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I meant to write:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear list members,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Would anyone know:
>>>>>> 1) Did the larger early 20th century Indian publishers such as Vidya
>>>>>> Vlas Press, Nirnaya-sagar press, and others use the same typeface to
>>>>>> typeset their publications, or did each publisher have its own unique
>>>>>> typeface.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2) Has anyone made a modern unicode font to mirror the typeface used
>>>>>> by Nirnaya-sagar press.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Harry Spier
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> INDOLOGY mailing list
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> --
>>> ------------
>>> Prof. Birgit Kellner, Ph.D., w.M.
>>> Institut für Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens
>>> Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
>>> Dominikanerbastei 16
>>> 1010 Wien
>>> Tel.: +43-(0)1-51581-6420
>>>
>>> Prof. Birgit Kellner, Ph.D., f.M.
>>> Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia
>>> Austrian Academy of Sciences
>>> Dominikanerbastei 16
>>> A-1010 Vienna
>>> Austria
>>> Phone: +43-(0)1-51581-6420
>>>
>>>
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>>
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