Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury

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Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
Calcutta, Bengal, British India
(now West Bengal, India)
NationalityBritish Indian
Known forWriter, painter
Spouse(s)Bidhumukhi Devi (daughter of Dwarkanath Ganguly and stepdaughter of Kadambini Ganguly)
ChildrenShukhalata Rao
Sukumar Ray
Punyalata Chakrabarty
Subinoy Ray
Shantilata Ray
Subimol Ray
RelativesSatyajit Ray (grandson)

Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury (12 May 1863

entrepreneur. One of his written books is Chotoder Shera Bigyan Rochona Shongkolon. He was the son-in-law of reformer Dwarkanath Ganguly. He was also an entrepreneur. He was the first person who introduced color printing in Bengal. He started the first colour children's magazine Sandesh in 1913.[2]

Family history

According to the history of the Ray family, one of their ancestors, Shri Ramsunder Deo (Deb), was a native of

Kishorganj. From then on Ramsunder started living in Jashodal. His descendants migrated from there and settled down in the village of Masua in the Katiadi upazila of the Kishoreganj district.[3]

Life

Ray with wife and six children.

Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was born on 12 May 1863,

Calcutta, where he died on 20 December 1915, aged only fifty-two.[note 1][4]

He was born as Kamadaranjan Ray to Kalinath Ray, a scholar in

W.G. Grace of India.[5][6] At the age of five, Kamadaranjan was adopted by Harikishore, a family-relative who was a zamindar in Mymensingh. Harikishore renamed his adopted son as Upendrakishore Roychowdhury, and added the honorific 'Raychaudhuri' as a surname.[7]

Ray Chowdhury passed the Entrance examination in 1880 with scholarship from Mymensingh Zilla School. He studied for a while at Presidency College, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta, but passed BA examination in 1884 from the Calcutta Metropolitan Institution (now Vidyasagar College). Upendra took to drawing while in school. He published his first literary work in the magazine Sakha in 1883.[8]

His father Kalinath Ray was an expert in both English and Persian, and also in the traditional Indian and Anglo-Indian legal systems. He became an eminent expert for interpreting old land deeds written in Persian and in helping the landowners to get the best deal from the newly introduced British legal system in India. He became affluent, and in due course his family was able to afford two elephants.[9]

Blockmaker, printer and publisher

House of Upendrakishore at 100 A Garpar Road, Kolkata Heritage Building, plaque by KMC

Upendrakishore first introduced modern blockmaking, including half-tone and color blockmaking, in South Asia. When the reproduction using woodcut line blocks of his illustrations for one of his books, Chheleder Ramayan, was very poor, he imported books, chemicals, and equipment from Britain to learn the technology of blockmaking. After mastering this, in 1895 he successfully set up a business, U. Ray and Sons, of making blocks at 7, Shibnarain Lane, which then became his residence-cum-workplace. He experimented with the process of advanced blockmaking, and several of his technical articles about blockmaking were published in the Penrose Annual Volumes published from Britain.[10] In his own lifetime, a printing expert from abroad commented that Upendrakishore's contribution was far more original than that of his counterparts in Europe and America, “which is all the more surprising when we consider how far he is from hub-centres of process work”.[11] He also went on publishing books, but initially he had them printed in other printing presses. His residence and business was located at 22, Sukeas Street (now the premises has been renamed 30B, Mahendra Srimany Street) from 1901 to 1914.[12] The Sandesh magazine was first published here in 1913 (Baisakh Bengali year 1320).

In 1914 he founded what was then probably the finest printing press in South Asia, U. Ray and Sons at 100 Garpar Road. Even the building plans were designed by him [13] He quickly earned recognition in India and abroad for the new methods he developed for printing both black and white and colour photographs with great accuracy of detail. It was with the intention of running this business that his son Sukumar Ray spent a few years at the University of Manchester's printing technology department.[4]

Technological innovations

He experimented with the process of advanced blockmaking, and several of his technical articles about blockmaking were published in the Penrose Annual Volumes published from Britain.[10] In his own lifetime, a printing expert from abroad commented that Upendrakishore's contribution was far more original than that of his counterparts in Europe and America, “which is all the more surprising when we consider how far he is from hub-centres of process work”.[11]

He invented several techniques related to halftone blockmaking, of which the "screen-adjusting machine" for the automatic focussing of process cameras, was also assembled in England following his design.[13] The British handbook of printing technology, the Penrose Annual, Volume X, 1904–05, mentioned about him in an editorial note that, "Mr. Ray is evidently possessed of a mathematical quality of mind and he has reasoned out for himself the problems of half-tone work in a remarkably successful manner ... (His printing developments) enable the operator to do uniform work with the fullest graduation and detail in it and with the minimum amount of manipulative skill in the negative-making and etching."[4] The Penrose Annual Volume XI of 1905–06 published his paper about the new technique of 60-degree screens in halftone blockmaking.

Author

Illustration from Rachana Samagra, 1910

"Cheleder Ramayana" was the first book by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. He embraced the liberal religious movement of

Tuntunir Boi. He further wrote Gupi Gyne, a fantasy novel (later adapted into the film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne); essays like Daasotto Pratha (regarding slavery in the United States), Sandow (on Eugen Sandow) etc and travelogues like Puri, Abar Purite (on Puri, Odisha), Megher Muluk (on Darjeeling).[15] One of his written book is Chotoder Shera Biggan Rochona Shongkolon.[16]

Tuntunir Boi
, 1920

Also a musician, Upendrakishore wrote two books about music in Bengali – Sohaj Behala Shikkha, about learning to play the violin, and Sikhak Batorike Harmonium, about learning to play the harmonium as an accompaniment to Indian music. These were published by

Dwarkin & Son, which was a famous music firm of the times, established by Dwarkanath Ghose, the inventor of the hand-harmonium. (Upendrakishore coined the name for the firm in 1875).[17]

His children

Upendrakishore's eldest daughter, Shukhalata Rao, became a social worker, children's book author, and editor of a newspaper, Alok. She founded the Shishu-o-Matri Mangal Kendro (Centre for the Welfare of Children and Mothers) and the Orissa Nari Seva Sangha.[18]

His eldest son was famous Sukumar Ray. His second daughter was Punyalata Chakraborty. His second son was Subinoy Ray and the youngest son Subimal Ray.

Notes

  1. ^ Modern Review gives 1862 as the year of his birth. The Satyajit Ray Society states it is 1863. Banglapedia says it is 10 May 1863.

References

  1. ^ a b c Raychowdhury, Hitendrakishore (1984). Upendrakishore O Moshua Ray Poribaarer Golposholpo. Firma KLM Private Limited. p. 1.
  2. ISBN 81-85626-65-0
    .
  3. ^ Sukumar Samagra Rachanabali 1, 1960, Asia Publishing Company, p 1
  4. ^ a b c "The Late Mr. U. Ray". Modern Review. XIX (1): 103–105. January 1916. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  5. ^ Mukhopadhyay, Atreyo (4 May 2019). "When Swami Vivekananda claimed seven wickets and other Eden Gardens tales". newindianexpress.com. Kolkata: The New Indian Express. Express News Service. Archived from the original on 16 April 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  6. ^ Bhattacharya, Ayan (10 September 2023). "বাংলা ভাগের ক্ষত কিভাবে বিষিয়ে দিল মোহনবাগান আর ইস্টবেঙ্গলকে?" [How did the wound of the partition of Bengal poisoned both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal?]. inscript.me (in Bengali). Kolkata: ইনস্ক্রিপ্ট বাংলা নিউজ. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  7. ^ "Family History". Satyajit Ray Society. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014.
  8. ^ Murshed, Md Mahbub (2012). "Roychowdhury, Upendra Kishore". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  9. ^
    ISBN 8172155840
    . (childhood memoirs of daughter of Upendrakishore)
  10. ^
    OCLC 908703157
    – via Open WorldCat.
  11. ^ a b "A man of primary colours". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  12. ^ "Streetsofcalcutta.com". streetsofcalcutta.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  13. ^ a b Desk, Feature. "A pioneer of Bengali printing industry | The Asian Age Online, Bangladesh". The Asian Age. Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  14. ^ His obituary, published in the Bengali magazine, "Prabashi", Magh, Bengali year 1322, 15th volume, 2nd part [compiled following a speech delivered by his son Sukumar Ray in his memorial service].
  15. ^ His obituary, published in the Bengali magazine, "Prabashi", Magh, Bengali year 1322, 15th volume, 2nd part [compiled following a speech delivered by his son Sukumar Ray in his memorial service].
  16. ^ His obituary, published in the Bengali magazine, "Prabashi", Magh, Bengali year 1322, 15th volume, 2nd part [compiled following a speech delivered by his son Sukumar Ray in his memorial service].
  17. ^ Bag, Shamik (13 August 2012). "1875 Dwarkin & Son - Sound-clouding centuries". Mint. New Delhi. Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  18. ^ Sarker, Sushanta (2012). "Rao, Shukhalata". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 12 May 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.

External links

Media related to Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury at Wikimedia Commons

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