The world of folklore, otherwise an integral part of oral literature, took an interesting route with printed volumes in India with vivid illustrations bringing to life images from folktales and mythologies. In Bengal, this process began around 175 years ago, when visual representation of the imaginary world of folklore started to get reflected through print for the first time, creating an important platform for Bengali children’s literature as well as Bengali folktales in print, in both English and Bengali. The result was quite astounding as reflections of folklore continued to grow steadily, influencing various children’s publications, and by the end of 19th century, the genre successfully managed to create an identity of its own. Especially accompanied by illustrations, which were meant to aid in both entertainment and education of children, this process encouraged illustrators for decades to come as many of the surviving examples remain a favourite amidst not only readers but graphic designers and illustrators from various parts of the world.

Inspired by several reasons, including administrative, educational or the spirit of nationalism, to compile and publish narratives from regional oral traditions, folklore of Bengal in children’s literature gave rise to an important genre of literature which did not exist earlier. For the very first time, imaginary or supernatural forces or beings, both positive and negative, including protagonists like a raja (king), rani (queen), rajkonya (princess), rajkumar (prince), saudagar or saudagar’s son (merchant and merchant’s son) or malevolent forces like a rakkhos (a man-eating demon), bhut (ghost), doityo (a harmful very large demon) or danob (a very large demon), travelled out of the realm of mere imagination and found a place in print more than 175 years ago. Celebrating thus its dodransbicentennial anniversary, many of these early illustrations are lost, but the few remaining others have helped to mould many thought processes across the last century.

To look at this, one needs to look at literature, especially created for children in Bengali, which began its journey more than 225 years ago with the initial textbooks. These were created to teach alphabets and moral lessons to children. Thereafter, it took nearly fifty more years to add illustrations as part of these books. Between 1800 till around 1850, various textbooks were published, especially under the efforts of Fort William College and Serampore Missionary Press and Calcutta School Book Society. These publications are significant in shaping a modern version of the Bengali language, representing their ethos and identity, but also unfortunately carried with it a sense of class hierarchy as well, with the text having a strong influence of Sanskrit and it was not until under the influence of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar that attempts to create a new identity for Bengali language began to flourish. Vidyasagar moved away from the age-old norms, creating a benchmark in Bengali children’s literature with his ‘Borno Porichay’ (Know the Bengali alphabets) published in 1855. However, illustrations, alongside Bengali folklore followed a different path and it interestingly did not begin with any local or regional folktale, but through translated Bengali versions of European folktales. It was another fifty years till local folklore of Bengal began to be reflected through illustrations and the very first ones were through translated works in English.

Bengali translations of European literature and the first illustrated works of children’s literature in Bengali

Thus, even before we move onto looking at Bengali folklore in print, we need to browse through some of the important stories and folklore from Europe, which became popular as children’s literature in printed form. All of these were translations and the journey began with the very popular ‘Robinson Crusor Bhraman Brittanta’ (Details of the travels of Robinson Crusoe) around 1850s. This was a Bengali translation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and this is considered as the first illustrated book for children in Bengali literature. Though this book, lost with time, was not really a part of Bengali folklore, it paved the way to inspire similar works in the future. This translation was part of the efforts of a newly established society, which focussed on translating world literature to Bengali through their Gurhasthya Bangla Pustak Sangraha and this was their maiden publication.

Thereby followed several other works over the next few decades, which were all Bengali translations of popular English fiction (and folklore and mythology) e.g. Madhusudan Mukhopadhyay’s translation of some of the stories by Hans Christian Anderson, between 1857-1860 through his ‘Duck Prince’. The second edition of ‘Duck Prince’, which came out in 1859, had woodcut illustrations. It also had the name of the engraver in the illustration- Ramdhan Das, a goldsmith of Simla, Calcutta. Unfortunately, of these early examples, only the mere names survive amidst periodicals but all other details, including information about their illustrations are all lost in time. Thus, it is hard to speak about the European representations through these translated works.

As the translation works picked up, there was a simultaneous growth of the publication of several Bengali prose books alongside, where the focus was majorly on education. This literature doubled as textbooks or books on moral principles. At times, these prose books also introduced children to the socio-cultural fabric of India, including discussions on agriculture and farmers and their social conditions or knowledge about basic sciences, like botany or zoology. However, all of these efforts had very little to borrow from folklore or even illustrations to depict concepts and ideas, which had to wait for few decades more- till the last decade of 19th century.

The beginning of Bengali oral literature in print

Towards the end of 19th century, a gradual change and a shift burgeoned to focus the shift from European influences towards local and regional Bengali folklore. The texts of this time borrowed heavily from local and regional Bengali oral literature to represent books for children. These books were milestones by themselves for several reasons. The period, witnessed a rising sense of nationalism against the British colonial administration in response to many atrocities, including heavy taxation, resulting in deplorable living conditions. Folklore seemed to provide an answer to a part of the problem. With a gradual growth in the demand of vernacular education, Bengali books for children witnessed a growth spurt. Borrowing heavily from folklore seemed to bridge an ever-existing rural-urban gap and the many illustrations seemed to aid in the process of bringing the rural flora and fauna to the urban populace.

It is also important mention that these books and these efforts have often faced criticisms for being limited to a certain class of society alone, including the urban elites, yet, the influence it had in the following years cannot be ruled out, which by the end of 19th century, paved the way for a new phenomenon. This was reflected in a need for a type of children’s literature which could be educational, but can also be considered to stand outside the parameters of mainstream text-books.

This genre was also labelled as ‘prize books’ or ‘home-study books’ and Jogindranath Sarkar’s ‘Hashi Khela’ in 1891, paved the way for this. With small and neat illustrations, along with couplets, the book was inspired by folklore of Bengal.  Jogindranath, for the first time, used fairy tales in his books, as a tool for education as well as entertainment for children and his illustrations followed accordingly. They were precise and portrayed incidents from various aspects of daily life, which a child could easily relate to, including, e.g. a child playing with his or her toys, a fishmonger selling fishes, two cats fighting, a boy flying a kite, children swimming in a pond, etc. The poems and the illustrations made the publications an instant success. Jogindranath’s method of storytelling was an important step for upcoming books on folklore of Bengal for children and he produced  many literary classics, meant to be for both-  ‘prize’ as well as ‘home-study’ purposes and some of these are- ‘Hashi Khushi- part 1 & 2’ (1897), ‘Chhabir Boi’ (1899), ‘Khukumonir Chhara’ (1899), ‘Chhara O Pora’ (1899), ‘Mamar Bari’ (1900).

Jogindranath’s books were quite different from earlier children’s literature as well and contained a variety of poems, stories, essays on animals, along with puzzles and sums. A particular poem, titled ‘Haradhoner doshti chhele’, encouraging children to learn both addition and subtraction incidentally, became a milestone as the title still remains alive as a proverb in common Bengali parlance even now.

A new beginning with Rev. Lal Behari Dey’s ‘Folktales of Bengal’-

At a time when Jogindranath’s efforts were creating their special place, an interesting addition to the genre, added a new direction. This was the first English compilation of Bengali folklore by Rev. Lal Behari Dey in 1875. This need for the documentation of Bengali folklore in English was directly influenced by the on-going work of the various British civil servants from different parts of India who were working variously for the departments of anthropology, archaeology, public works, gazetteers and linguistics survey and many others. By the last quarter of 19th century, this efforts also began to be reflected through books and essays concerning the peasants and their plight from across India and from one such book, the first English book of Bengali folklore took birth. This was Rev. Lal Behari Dey’s ‘Folktales of Bengal’ (1875). This edition was published without any illustrations and it was only a reprint in 1912, which saw the added coloured illustrations by noted illustrator Warwick Goble (1862-1943). ‘Folktales of Bengal’ also encouraged many other similar books on folklore in years to follow- both in English and Bengali.

A prolific writer in English, Rev. Dey was a contemporary of other literary stalwarts of his time, including Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Peary Chand Mitra and Dinabandhu Mitra and all of them, including Rev. Dey, wrote many books and essays on the deplorable condition of the peasants of the time, under the British colonial rule. Between 1872-1888, Rev. Dey was the Professor of English and Mental and Moral Philosophy in Hooghly Mohsin College, under the University of Calcutta. It was during his stay at Burdwan, he interacted with the peasants closely and compiled his perspectives about the appalling conditions of the peasants in his book- ‘Bengal Peasant Life’. This book was published in 1874 and encouraged Rev. Dey to finally pen down the ‘Folktales of Bengal’. That story is interesting as well. In his ‘Bengal Peasant Life’ Rev, Dey had mentioned a peasant boy, Govinda to sit down to hear stories from an elderly woman named, ‘Shambhur Ma’ (Shambhu’s Ma). The mention of this passage in the book inspired R.C. Temple of the Bengal Staff Corps to write to Rev. Dey, mentioning, “how interesting it would be to get a collection of those unwritten stories which old women in India recite to little children in the evenings” (from preface, Folktales of Bengal, 1875). Thus encouraged, Rev. Dey began to further search for people who could narrate him stories and ended up interacting with a host of people, whom he mentions in the preface of the same book, including an elderly woman, also known as ‘Shambur Ma’, a young Christian girl, elderly Brahmin priests, elderly servants and a barber.

Warwick Goble’s added illustrations in ‘Folktales of Bengal’- How Indian were the illustrations really?-

Rev. Dey’s book was finally published in 1875. In its textual form, Rev. Dey tried to maintain the basic essence of the Bengali stories which he heard and translated himself into English. However, this essence changed with the illustrations years later, when Warwick Goble added his drawings in 1912. Goble, a British illustrator, trained in the City of London School and the Westmister School of Art, though is said to have specialised in fairy tales from Japan, India and Arabia, yet, it is impossible to overlook the specific racial undertone running across his paintings. A famous artist, Warwick’s illustrations suggested a convergence of the ‘exotic’ and ‘alluring’ world of the Arabian Nights, the Persian miniatures and the Orientalist styles of paintings, in an attempt to portray the mysterious world of Bengali folklore. Though fascinating are the watercolours of Warwick, yet the illustrations seem to echo tales from far-removed lands, instead of complementing the storylines. A close observation even at present too, speaks volumes about how disconnected the illustrations are from the text making them seem distinct, distant and detached from the entire storyline. Thus, though the book could have promised an edition of wonderful storytelling through the colourful watercolour paintings, yet the raja (king) and rani (queen) or the rajkumar (prince) and rajkanya (princess) or even the antagonists like a rakkhos (man-eating demon) or a bhut (ghost) could hardly connect the aesthetics of local Bengali folklore to a mind's eye, which the stories of the folklore inspire otherwise.

Illustrations by Warwick Goble for the 1912 edition of Rev. Lal Behari Dey’s book ‘Folktales of Bengal’. Top right- A rajkumar (prince) and a rajkanya (princess). Top left- A Brahmin and demons. Bottom left- A rajkanya and her parrot. Bottom right- A lady, a raja (king) and a flying horse. (Source- Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38488/38488-h/38488-h.htm)

Lithographs by Dhakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar in his ‘Thakurmar Jhhuli’- A new beginning-

Interestingly enough, there was also a competition for Rev. Lal Behari’s book by the time the illustrated edition came out in 1912 and this was from the famous book ‘Thakurmar Jhhuli’ (Grandmother’s Bag of Tales) by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar, which was released in 1907. The drawings were done by Dakkhinarankan himself and these were turned to lithographs for printing. An interesting history follows this book as well. Dakkhinaranjan recorded his stories with a phonograph and then carefully played each story several times as he penned them down. However, the efforts failed to yield any immediate result as Dakkhinaranjan found no publisher initially for the manuscript. However, impressed with the manuscript and the diligent efforts, Dinesh Chandra Sen, noted educationist, writer and researcher of Bengali folklore, arranged for it to be published by Bhattacharya and Sons, a renowned publisher of the time. The book carried fourteen stories, along with lithograph prints based on drawings by the author himself and the result was astounding as within a week, three thousand copies were sold. For the introduction of this book, Rabindranath himself wrote about the necessity to document and publish the folklore from Bengal as what existed mostly till then, were translated works of European folklore. This Swadeshi message was also true to the nationalist spirit of the time, coinciding with the Bengal-Partition Movement from 1905 onwards. ‘Thhakurmar Jhhuli’ was also followed up with three more books by the author - ‘Thakurdadar Jhuli’ (Grandfather’s Bag of Tales, 1909), ‘Thandidir Thole’ (Maternal Grandmother’s Bag of Tales, 1909) and ‘Dadamoshayer Thole’ (Maternal Grandfather’s Bag of Tales,1913). In these, Thakurdadar Jhhuli had several lithograph print drawings, with many of them printed in sepia tones.

Lithograph print illustrations from ‘Thakurmar Jhhuli’. Top left- Rani (queens) see off the king. Top right- A specific type of boat, referred to as Mayurpankhi. Bottom left- A rakkhoshi (man-eating demoness). Bottom right- A group of khokkosh (man-eating small-sized demons).

(Source- Archive.org- https://archive.org/details/dli.scoerat.2596thakurmarjhulibanglarrupkatha/page/n7/mode/2up)

‘Thakurmar Jhhuli’ remains a household name till date, like its illustrations. The very innovative lithograph prints giving shape to even imaginary characters like rakkhos and khokkhos (man-eating small-sized demons) and others, still remain a favourite amongst Bengali readers the world over. ‘Thakurmar Jhhuli’ created a benchmark and though many others tried to follow, few could attain the same fame as did Dakkhinaranjan with his famous collection.

Line-drawings by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury for his ‘Tuntunir Boi’-

Around the same time, a different group of illustrations became famous through the collected fables by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. Upendrakishore was a noted publisher, printer, illustrator, poet and writer and specially collected his stories from eastern part of erstwhile Bengal, mostly corresponding to the regions of Mymansingha (presently in Bangladesh) and adjoining areas. This compilation was published as ‘Tuntunir Boi’ (1910). The illustrations moved away from the days of lithograph prints as they were line-drawings by the author himself. Upendrakishore used advanced blockmaking techniques, including the first colour and halftone blocks in South Asia to reproduce the illustrations with great details for the fables.

Inspired by the flora and fauna of rural Bengal, the illustrations by Upendrakishore went onto creating a history of their own as the stories are still read with great fondness by readers the world over and are frequently depicted in popular culture as well, including films and animation media. It is interesting to note the underlying sub-texts of Upendrakishore’s illustrations. Not only did they bring to life specific fables from Bengal, but also echoed parts of historical incidents, and some of the best examples can be seen through the illustrations of the stories of ‘Buddhur Baap’ (The Old Farmer), ‘Boka Baagh’ (The Foolish Tiger) and ‘Bagher Palki Chawra’ (The Tiger’s Palanquin Ride). Reading into the subtexts of these stories, one can understand the reflections of a continuous tussle of local Indians against the British colonial government and its various taxation acts or violently coercive activities. This can be further explained through a close study of the story of ‘Bagher Palki Chawra’ which especially echoes the very unfortunate incident of Titumir and his fight against the British government. The story of Titumir has been retold in popular culture eversince, through multiple channels, including theatre, animation media and films. An important person of regional history, Titumir was born as Syed Mir Nisar Ali on January 27, 1782. He is better known as Titumir and developed a stand of nationalism of his community, coupled with agrarian and political consciousness. He is famed for having built a large bamboo fort to resist the British. Unfortunately, in the revolt which ensued, Titumir met a violent death within his fort on November 19, 1831. Titumir had gathered many of his men inside a bamboo fort (bansher kella), which instigated the Governor General of India, Lord William Bentinck and on November 17, 1831, he instructed Smith, the district magistrate of Nadia to move in and demolish the fort. The fort was demolished with cannons and Titumir was bayonetted to death, along with his fifty fellow soldiers. About 800 others were arrested and tried at Alipur Court in Kolkata. Titumir’s story went down in the history of the region as a legend and his story has variously echoed across various platforms in popular culture for nearly two centuries now. In the story ‘Bagher Palki Chawra’ in Tuntunir Boi, the protagonist, a foolish tiger, was bayoneted to death, much like Titumir, inside a crumbling bamboo shack (bansher kella).

Illustrations (line-drawings) by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury from his book ‘Tuntunir Boi’. Top left- illustration of the bamboo fort in the story ‘Bagher Palki Chawra’. Top right- Illustration from the story ‘Pimprey aar pimprir kawtha’. Bottom left- Illustration from the story ‘Dushtu bagh’. Bottom right- Illustration from the story ‘Tuntuni aar beraler kawtha’

(Source- Lopamudra Maitra translation of Upendrakisore’s ‘Tuntunir Boi’, titled, ‘The collected stories of Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. Aleph Book Company. 2023)

After Upendrakishore and beyond the second decade of 20th century-

Towards the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, few more important illustrated books on Bengali folklore were published, but they are little spoken about as no version is available at present even for reference, barring few libraries. Here, mention may be made of Satyacharan Chakraborty’s ‘Thakurmar Jhhola’ (Grandmother’s big bag of tales), which was published in 1918. By 1920, this book was followed by “Thakurdadar Jhola” (Grandfather’s big bag of tales) and “Thandidir Galpa” (Grandmother’s Stories). ‘Thakurdadar Jhola’ contained seven big fairy tales, while ‘Thakurmar Jhhola’ consisted of two parts, with the first one having five and the second one having eight fairy tales from Bengal. Though Satyacharan did not disclose his sources, like the previous books on Bengali folklore, but the influence of Dakkhinaranjan’s famous works is prominent from the lithographs of the book. Satyacharan had been one of the editors of ‘Shishu’ children’s magazine in Bengali of the early 20th century.

Illustrations (lithograph prints) of Satyacharan’s book ‘Thakurmar Jhhola’. The influence of the stories and lithograph prints from Dakkhinaranjan’s works are prominent, including the representations of the flora and fauna of rural Bengal.

(Source- National Library, Kolkata website- http://bengalichildrensbooks.in/ThakurmarJhola.php)

Like the works of Satyacharan, a contemporary author Shibratan Mitra’s works are also lost to public. Hailing from Suri in Birbhum district of Bengal his works, which were all richly illustrated, are important as they speak about especially the folklore of western parts of Bengal and also especially about Santali folktales. Shibratan Mitra’s first book on folklore of Bengal, ‘Sanjhher Kawtha’ came out in 1919 and this volume was followed a decade later by ‘Nishir Kawtha’ and ‘Kalpo Kawtha’ around 1933. Both ‘Sanjhher Kawtha’ and ‘Nishir Kawtha’ contained seven fairytales each and were very richly illustrated. Shibratan Mitra’s contributions are unique as the stories which he collected were put to print for the first time. He described this in the introduction of his book ‘Sanjhher Kawtha’ as- “Old village housewives of those days or old grandads were never ending sources of these fairy tales. We collected these fairy tales so long current in these areas in three volumes-Sanjher Katha, Nisir Katha and Ushar Katha. None of these fairy tales had been published before”.

After the second quarter of 20th century-

This was a period which saw the illustrations of printed books on Bengali folklore to have become well-defined to establish an identity of its own. These slowly began to move away from the days of lithograph prints and a distinct European influence to incorporate a more local approach. The representations spoke closely to resemble the identities of the target audience - the children. 

This is evident from the many works of Kartick Chandra Dasgupta, which were published between 1923-41. During this time, Kartick published seven volumes of fairy tales, which he collected from erstwhile eastern Bengal (including Bangladesh). Out of these, ‘Tultul’ was published in 1923 and ‘Saat Rajyer Gawlpo’ (The story of seven kingdoms) in 1928. Being a poet, his books on poetry were also influenced by Bengali folklore and richly illustrated, e.g. ‘Phuljhhuri’ (Sparklers), published in 1913 and ‘Tai Tai’ in 1915. Each of the illustrations of Kartick’s book spoke about a distinct identity and for the first time, the illustrations moved away from being lithograph prints to being an integral part of the press through line drawings or oleographs in sepia or colour. Once the tempo was set, more individuality followed and mention should be made of the wonderful creations of Sukumar Ray.

Sukumar Ray and his ‘Khichuri’-

Sukumar was the son of Upendrakishor Ray Chowdhury and father of auteur, Bharat Ratna, Oscar awardee and noted writer, author and illustrator Satyajit Ray.  Aiming not only children, but adults as well, his literary genius helped to establish and create a benchmark for literary nonsense in Bengali literature. In a brilliant combination of text and illustrations, the mythical and often nonsensical, yet logical world of Bengali folklore came alive through the desk of Sukumar. His keen observation skills, sharp wit and command over word selection rendered a very different approach in illustrations as well as the accompanying text. 

His story began with a simple poem in 1914, titled ‘Khichuri’ and by 1915, after the death of his father, Upendrakishore, Sukumar had to take the responsibility of the children’s magazine ‘Sandesh’, which was started by Upendrakishore. The richly illustrated stories and poems in ‘Sandesh’ provided a new platform which is still loved by readers the world over. In 1923, was published Sukumar Ray’s famous book, ‘Abol Tabol’, unfortunately Sukumar never lived to see its publication as he passed away untimely, just ten days before its release. ‘Abol Tabol’ had many poems, previously published in ‘Sandesh’ and seven unpublished ones as well.

Illustrations (line-drawings) by Sukumar Ray for his first poem ‘Khichuri’. This is also included in his book ‘Abol Tabol’. Creating his own style, the myriad flora and fauna of Bengal created landmarks. These sketches remain famous even at present.

(Source- Archive.org- https://archive.org/details/dli.scoerat.2010aboltabol/page/n11/mode/2up)

A brief look at the journey till the 1940s-

With a time-honoured path thus paving the way, the conscientious initial steps of Bengali folklore and illustrations paved the way for the genre to further develop in the final years till the independence of India in 1947. The second quarter of 20th century, followed by the next few decades, saw several original books as well as many translations being published, out of which some borrowed heavily from collections of folklore of Bengal, unfortunately, few survive today and only some names can be scanned from the many periodicals of the times, including Sita and Shanta Debi, Manilal Gangopadhyay, Dinendra Kumar Ray, Barada Kanta Mazumdar, Binodini Debi, Jogendra Nath Gupta, Nabakrishna Bhattacharyya, Ramkamal Bidyabhushan, Dwijendra Nath Neogi, Abinash Dasgupta, Satadal Bashini Biswas, Haraprasanna Dasgupta, Kulada Ranjan Ray,  amongst many others, who contributed considerably towards creating an important path for illustrations for Bengali folklore.

Today, as different graphic novels, calendar arts, animation movies and other platforms of popular culture share illustrations about Bengali folklore, they continue to echo a trend and a pattern that began more than 175 years ago. Often, the texts are adopted to suit the preferences of present readers in the modern global world and thus, the illustrations too, follow accordingly, emanating an image of cultural assimilation. 

Visuals and illustrations in stories shoulder a lot of responsibilities by not only taking a storyline further but also building up images about people and places which a reader may not know about. The visuals also are on a symbiotic relationship with the reader and that is to understand the illustrated story before them, the readers have to bring their individual and collective understanding. Thus, the interpretations and representations through illustrations are a two-way process as they complement each other and also helps to chart new paths to discover and this is the exact space which the very first illustrations of Bengali children’s books explored through print with the first books of Bengali folklore. 

In the present era of AI and simulated visual and audio-visual graphic representations, the contributions of the first Bengali illustrations remain pivotal as they underscore the significance of a long history of various thought processes and diligent efforts which went behind shaping a path for generations of graphic artists in the decades to come to explore imagination and a world of fantasy.

(The author is a Kolkata-based visual anthropologist, culture specialist, writer, translator and columnist. Views are personal. She can be reached at lopamudramaitra@gmail.com)