EARLIEST BENGALI JOURNALISM — 235 at once, and as it avoided all religious controversy in the earlier issues, it was welcomed even by the most orthodox among the Hindus. The name of Dvarakanath Thakur headed the list of subscribers, and its long life of 33 years, in spite of later oppositions and vicissitudes, till 1851 sufficiently indicates its power, efficiency and popularity as the leading and for some time the only paper of theday. “To the Darpan,”’ it is sae 4 said, “the educated natives looked as the means of bringing the oppression of their own countrymen to the knowledge of the public and the authorities. Government too found it useful for contradicting rumours and promoting contentment, if not loyalty. 1 The first number of the Samachar Darpan was pub- lished on Saturday, May 23, 1818 (20% @3yB, HA v22¢)2
- Smith, op. cit., p. 204.
- The earlier files of the paper had long become very scarce and
this fact has given rise to various erroneous views about the date of its first publication, A file of this paper from its origin (May 23, 1818 to July 14, 1821) will be found in the Library of the Sahitya Parigat. Even Marshman himself, in his two books (History of Serampore Mission, vol ii, p. 163, and History of Bengal, 1859, p, 251) gave the dates erroneously as May 3], Sunday, 1818, and May 29, Friday, 1818 respectively. Dinesh Chandra Sen, in following Marshman, has fallen into the sameerror in his History. Long (Descriptive Cata- logue, 1855, p. 66) gives August 23, Friday, 1818. The most obvious mistake is that made by Rajndriyan Basu who in his discourse on Bengali Language and Literature dates the paper from 1816, and the Calcutta Christian Observer (Feb., 1840) is equally mistaken in taking 1819 as the date of the first publication of this paper. 1 have been able to get access to the following files of the paper (a) from May 23, 1818 to July 14, 1821 (Sahitya Parigat Library) (b) from 1831 to 1837 (Imperial Library, Calcutta) (c) From 1851 to 1852 (Bengal Asiatic Society's Library). 1 bave given an account of these files in an article in the Sahitya Parigat Patrika, vol. 24, pp. 149-170.
