Role of Religious Text


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Role of Religious Text

Role of Religious Text: The first printed edition of the ‘Ramcharitmanas’ of Tulsidas, a 16th century text, came out from Calcutta in 1810. By the mid-l9th century, the cheap lithographic editions flooded North Indian markets. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernacular These religious texts encouraged discussions, debates and controversies within and among different religions. On the other hand, newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.

New forms of publication: Printing created need for new kinds of writings. Beside novels, other new literary forms like lyrics, short stories and essays about social and political matters entered the world reading. At the end of the 19th century, a new visual culture was taking shape. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Poor wood engravers who made woodblocks, set up their shop near the letter presses and they were employed by print shops.

Even poor could easily buy the calendars and cheap prints for the decoration of his house and office. These prints influenced the ideas about modernity, tradition, religion, politics, society and culture. By the 1870s, caricatures a cartoons were being published in journals and newspaper commenting on social and political issues.

 
 


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