JAVJI DADAJI CHAUDHARY.
This is the story of a nearly illiterate man who on his mere abilities became a renowned personality in printing business of 19th century. JAVJI was born in a poor Maharashtrian family in 1839. Having lost his father at a very tender age, Javji had to discontinue his education at the age of 9 & had to begin earning for his livelihood. Around the same time, Thomas Graham of American mission had started the Mission's "Type foundry"/printing press in Bhendi Bazar area. Javji joined the foundry/press on salary of Rs.2/- per month & was given a work of rubbing/polishing of Types (letter mould) in the foundry. He worked there for 10 yrs. & made himself so proficient in Type cutting & casting that when the press was taken over by Times of India in 1859, Javjis service was continued with salary of Rs.10/- per month. In 1862 Javji left TOI & joined newly started InduPrakash press as Type-caster on salary of Rs.15/- & then to Oriental printing press on Rs.30/- & was assigned the work of Type founding. He mastered & further developed the art that he had learnt in this period & established his own Type-foundry in 1864 by borrowing capital of Rs.700/- from Firojshah Meharji, proprietor of Bombay Samachar & Khuma Sheth, a money lender. His efforts in Type cutting & subsequent inventions of Types were universally acclaimed & were in demand in foreign countries as well. Soon in addition to Type foundry he started his own Printing Press in 1867 in Kalbadevi area of Bombay. Very next year in 1868 Javji undertook printing of "Panchang" (almnac) by specially cutting the small "Types" for this work & named it "Nirnay Sagar" Panchang. Soon it was a part of almost every house hold in Maharashtra. He therefore named his press as Nirnay Sagar press. Sanskrit scripts had its own complexities for composing & printing where exact pronunciation needed to be reproduced while printing. Javji designed his own "Akhand Type" for Devnagari scripts. His Sanskrit publications under the banner of Nirnay Sagar became famous not only in India but all over the world where Sanskrit was studied. He was awarded Justice of Peace in 1892. Unfortunately in the same year he breathed his last after a brief illness. During his working span his foundry established 20 Marathi Type fonts, 40 English, 15 Gujarati and Hindi, 2 Hebrew & 1 Kannada Type fonts. Besides, he had casted 7 varieties of Types specially for (Vaidic) Sanskrit. In his life time Nirnay Sagar press published & printed 193 Sanskrit & 228 Marathi books of its own & the press and foundry together had employed 250 workers. His legacy was carried on by his son Tukaram Javji. The father son duo was honoured by naming two roads in Bombay's Tardeo area after them.