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GLIMPSES OF SCIENCE WRITINGS OF SUKUMAR RAY

INDRANIL SANYAL*

Sukumàr Rày’s contributions to the field of science popularization through popular sciencewritings for children have been overshadowed by his fame as a writer par excellence of Bengalinonsense prose and verses. Born in a prominent Brahmo family to an illustrious fatherUpendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Sukumàr Rày was educated in Kolkata’s Presidency Collegeand then moved to England to be trained in Photography and Printing Technology. From theearly nineteenth century, magazines and periodicals in Bengali started publishing news andarticles on science. By 1880s, large numbers of children’s magazines started appearing whichregularly published science articles for children. Upendrakishore brought out Sande÷ in 1913.After his death in 1915, Sukumàr Rày took over as editor and wrote more than 100 popularscience articles till his untimely death in 1923. They were written in uniquely simple andinteresting style, introducing the world of science to the children. The empowerment of Indiansthrough Science was one of the nationalist agendas of that time and Sukumàr Rày accomplishedit through his writings. However, it is strongly felt that Sukumàr Rày’s contribution to the sciencepopularization movement in India has not been properly evaluated.

ARTICLE

Introduction

Sukumàr Rày is primarily known as one of the iconsof modern Indian children’s literature, who authoredthe collection of nonsense poems under the title

âbol-tàbol (The Weird and the Absurd) and thenonsensical stories Ha-ja-ba-ra-la (Mumbo-Jumbo), PàglàDà÷u (Crazy Dà÷u)1 and many such pieces. But very fewpeople have given him credit for his Science Writings forChildren and other Popular Science Articles, written in aunique style and which deserve a place of importance inthe History of Science Communication in India.

Sukumàr Rày was born on October 30, 1887 inKolkata to a legendary father, Upendrakishore RayChowdhury and Bidhumukhi Devi (daughter of Socialreformer Dwarkanath Ganguly and step daughter of Dr.Kadambini Ganguly, the first Indian Woman physician),belonging to a prominent Brahmo family, which had gained

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36094/sc.v87.2021.Glimpses_of_Science_Writings_of_Sukumar_Ray.Sanyal.253

Sci. and Cult. 87 (7–8) : 253-258 (2021)

* Director, North-East Zone, National Council of ScienceMuseums (Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India), Sector V,Block GN, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091.e-mail: sanyalindranilncsm@gmail.com

Sukumar Ray(Source: Wikimedia Creative Commons)

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considerable fame for their contributions to art, literature,music and to the printing technology2. The family’sancestral home was in the undivided Mymensingh districtof Bengal (now in Bangladesh). Upendrakishore was aproduct of Bengal Renaissance of the 19th century; hewas a popular writer for children (notable among his booksfor children are òunñunir Boi, children’s editions ofRàmàyaõa and Mahàbhàrata in Bengali, and Gupã GàyenBàghà Bàyen, made into a hugely popular children’s filmin 1969 by his illustrious grandson, Satyajit Ray), a popularscience writer and a printing technologist who had set upM/s U Ray & Sons3. Upendrakishore wrote for Sakhàand other magazines before going on to bring out hisown Sande÷4. Among his family friends were RabindranathTagore, Jagadis Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray, AtulPrasad Sen and many others. Sukumàr Rày inherited twoqualities from his father: a passion for writing for childrenand an interest in printing technology and photography5.

Sukumàr Rày graduated from Kolkata’s prestigiousPresidency College in 1906 with double Honours in Physicsand Chemistry and along with his brother Subinay, startedworking in his father’s company M/s U Ray & Sons6,7. In1911, with the Guruprasanna Ghosh Scholarship from theUniversity of Calcutta, Sukumàr left for England to train atthe School of Photo-Engraving and Lithography inLondon8. He was also trained at the Manchester Instituteof Technology. He joined the Royal Academy ofPhotographers in 1912 and was to remain a member till hisdeath, gaining a fellowship in 1922. While he was inLondon, he developed new methods of halftone blockmaking, and technical articles about this were publishedin journals in England. The Penrose Annual published twoarticles by Rày9. One article was published in The BritishJournal of Photography.

Bengal’s Tradition in Science Popularizationthrough Magazines and Periodicals

People of Bengal had their first taste of WesternScience in the early 19th century through the publicationsof ørãràmpur Missionaries and the Calcutta School BookSociety. The popularity of the science books publishedby the School Book Society inspired some Europeans andIndians to publish popular science articles and sciencenews in literary magazines and periodicals and even innewspapers. Digdar÷an (launched in April, 1818) was thefirst periodical in Bengali10 (Gangakishore Bhattacharya’sweekly Bengal Gezetti also appeared in the same year,but it was very short-lived). It was a monthly, publishedby the ørãràmpur (Serampore) Baptist Mission and editedby John Clark Marshman (son of the renowned missionary

Joshua Marshman). It was not a Science Magazine, but aperiodical for the youth. However, it regularly publishedarticles on science, mainly on physics, geology, geographyand geographical discoveries like that of Columbus with afew articles on agriculture, zoology, chemistry andastronomy. In 1822, School Book Society published sixmonthly issues of Pa÷vàvalã or ‘Animal Biography’11,12.Each issue was dedicated to the description of an animal;thus the six issues described Lion & Fox, Bear, Elephant,Rhinoceros & Hippopotamus, Tiger and Cat. The writingwas in a story-telling manner and there was hardly anyscientific information in them. However, the stories wereinteresting. Publication of Pa÷vàvalã stopped after sixissues. The new series of Pa÷vàvalã appeared in 1834 dueto the efforts of Ramchandra Mitra. Like the old series,the new incarnation also described one animal per issue,beginning with Dogs in the first issue.

The tradition of scientific periodicals in Bengalicontinued through the 1830s and 1840s and from 1830s,more and more magazines and periodicals startedpublishing articles and news on science and technology.Among them, Jñànànveùaõ (1831), Jñànodaya (1831),Vijñànasàra Saügraha (1832) and Vijñàna Sevadhi (1833)were notable. Vijñàna Sevadhi was probably the firstperiodical to use the Sanskrit vocabulary Vijñàna in Bengalias a suitable translation for the English ‘NaturalSciences’13. However, high quality science writings firstappeared in Vidyàdar÷an (1842)14. Among the newspapersof this era, Samàcàr Darpaõ (launched May 23, 1818 fromthe Baptist Mission Press, ørãràmpur) regularly publishednews and articles on Science15.

Tattvabodhinã Patrikà , launched in 1843 byTattvabodhinã Sabhà founded by Debendranath Tagorein 1839, was edited for twelve years by Akshay KumarDatta16,17. The magazine played a remarkable role in sciencecommunication in Bengal. It was a widely read periodicalin educated Bengali society. As a writer and editor, AkshayKumar contributed substantially to the creation of ascientific temper in the society through this magazine andto the improvement of Bengali science journalism and theevolution of modern Bengali science vocabulary. However,Tattvabodhinã Patrikà was not a science magazine andthe first twenty five issues did not publish any article onscience. The subsequent issues started publishing highquality science articles in much simpler language comparedto the earlier magazines. Articles on animals and plants,natural wonders, electricity, chemistry, physics,mathematics, astronomy etc. were regularly published.Akshay Kumar Datta’s books namely, Càrupàñh(Elementary Lessons, 1853–54), Bhågol (Geography, 1851)

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and Padàrthavidyà (Physics, 1856) had been serialized inthis magazine before they appeared in the form of books.The magazine had a separate section called Vijñàna Bàrtà,where science related news items were regularly published.Tattvabodhinã Patrikà’s popularity gradually declined afterAkshay Kumar resigned from the post of editor in 1855.

The success of Tattvabodhinã Patrikà inspired othersto publish science articles in magazines and periodicals.Two names in this connection are worth mentioning forthe mid-19th century period: Vividàrtha Saügraha (firstpublished in October 1851)18,19 and Rahasya Sandarbha(first published in March 1863). Though the quality ofarticles was not as high as that of Tattvabodhinã Patrikà,nevertheless, Vividàrtha Saügraha had a big impact onpublic understanding of science mainly because of thefluent writings by Rajendralal Mitra, who was not onlythe editor of the first six issues, but continued to write inthe subsequent issues. Most of the articles were onZoology, Botany, Chemistry, Physics, Geography and a fewon Astronomy. Vividàrtha Saügraha was the first Bengaliperiodical to publish high quality articles on PhysicalGeography. The other literary magazines of this period whocontributed substantially to the science popularizationwere: Baïgadar÷an (launched in 1872, EditorBankimchandra Chattopadhyay), âryadar÷an (launched in1874, Editor Jogendranath Vidyabhushan) and Bhàratã(launched in 1877, Editor Dwijendranath Tagore).

In the second half of the 19th century, the BengalRenaissance was in full bloom and people wereappreciative of the power of Western Science and wereeager to get themselves acquainted with the latestdevelopment of science and technology in Europe andthe USA. The science articles published in the magazinesand periodicals mentioned above, aimed to present theWestern Science in a simple language to the Bengalispeaking people so as to create an interest in science inthe society. One must remember that the premier instituteslike Presidency College, St. Xavier’s College, CalcuttaMedical College, Bengal Engineering College (Shibpur) hadalready become important centres for teaching science,engineering and medicine by this time.

During this period, several magazines and periodicalsstarted appearing in print, which regularly published articleson different topics of science with the targeted readershipamong women and children. Notable among them wereBàmàbodhinã Patrikà (launched in 1863, first EditorUmeshchandra Datta), Paricàrikà (launched in 1878, firstEditor Pratapchandra Majumdar), Abodhbandhu (launchedin 1867, Editor Biharilal Chakrabarti), Jyotiriïgana(launched in 1870, Editor Brajamadhab Basu), Sakhà

(launched in 1882, first Editor Pramadacharan Sen) etc.20,21.which created an immense impact on the young minds.Towards the end of the 19th century, the enthusiasmcreated in Bengal about the modern science, technologyand medicine was high, and scientists and educationistswere eager to apply their scientific knowledge to thematerial and intellectual development of Indians and weredetermined to prove the competence of Indians comparedto that of Europeans in the field of science. “Rationalismand humanism became crucial tools for an intendedtransformation”22. “A national movement for increasedparticipation of Indians in administration began in themid-1880s, soon to be accompanied by constructiveprogrammes to achieve self-reliance. For instance, tocounter racist and exploitative ‘colonial’ science,Mahendralal Sarkar founded the Association for theCultivation of Science to further the cause of a‘nationalist’ science that would help bring prosperity anddignity to the nation”23. Scientific excellence by Indiansbecame a de facto agenda of Indian nationalism and Kolkatabecame the hub of scientific research and education inIndia. Good writings on Science in vernacular languagewere in high demand.

Sande÷ and Sukumàr Rày’s Science Writingsfor Children

With this background, Sande÷ appeared in the field,albeit little late, but almost coincidentally with theestablishment of Calcutta University College of Science(1915).In May 1913, Upendrakishore launched theillustrated children’s magazine Sande÷24. In the preface ofthe inaugural issue, Editor Upendrakishore wrote, “Ourendeavour will be successful if the magazine is enjoyedby the children; at the same time if it benefits them”25.To quote from Satyajit Ray and Partha Basu, “The principalobjective of Sande÷ Magazine, inter alia, was to presentthe contemporary events and all historical, cultural andscientific news in a simple language. The founder-editorUpendrakishore wrote such articles, of which articles onanimals became particularly popular.26” Sukumàr Ràyreturned from England in 1913 and after his father’suntimely death in 1915, Sukumàr (with the help of hisbrother Subinay) ran the printing and publishingbusinesses and the Sande÷ for about eight years. SatyajitRay and Partha Basu further wrote, “The next editor ofSande÷, Sukumàr Rày, not only wrote comic stories orpoetries, but also wrote about ancient and contemporarydiscoveries and inventions, contemporary cultural eventsand important material and cultural additions to humancivilizations; details account on all these were regularlypublished in lucid language in Sande÷”27. By 1920-21,

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Sukumâr Rây fell critically ill, and his illness had adverseeffect on the publication of Sande÷ and during 1920,Sande÷ became irregular for a few issues. It is a misfortuneof Bengali speaking people that Sukumàr Rày died in 1923of Kàlà-àzar (which had no cure at that time) at the age ofonly thirty-six years28. He left behind his widow, Suprabhà(married in 1919), and their only child, Satyajit, who wasonly two years old at that time. Satyajit Rày would latershoot a documentary on Sukumàr Rày in 1987, five yearsbefore his own death. Most of Sukumàr Rày’s writings forchildren were published in Sande÷ magazine. The writingshave been collected in the Centenary Edition of SukumàrRày’s Collected Works (Vol. 1-3, Ed. Satyajit Ray & ParthaBasu, Ananda Publishers, 1987-88).

Sukumàr Rày’s Popular Science Writings can becategorized in four groups:

1. Thirty-seven articles on Animals & Birds (inBengali)29. The list is given below (the titles aretranslated into English by the present author):Gorilla, Fight between gorillas, Baboon, In theAlipore Zoo, Human faced, Peccary, The AnimalEngineer, Glutton, Birth of Horse, Ancient Tiger,Ancient Bat, The Whims of a Whale, Business ofWhale, Monstrous Fish, A Strange Fish, ElectricFish, Walrus, A Cousin of Crocodile, A StrangeCrab, Snails and Oysters, Double-horned Hornbill,Bird’s Nest, Common Flies, Grasshopper, TheArmoured Animals, The Fighter Animal, Nocturnal,Animals with strange-shaped Noses, Migration ofAnimals and Birds, How do Animals Sleep,Hunting of a Cobra, Hunting of Lions, AncientFights, Animals outside Cage, Animals in theCircus Shows and Hunting in Prehistoric Era.

2. Sixteen articles on Biographies of famous people(in Bengali)30 including four on Scientists-Archimedes, Galileo, Darwin and Louis Pasteur,one article on Alfred Nobel, one article on the lifeof Socrates, two articles on the lives of explorersLivingstone and Columbus and two are mixedbiographies. Remaining six are not directly relatedto Science.

3. Sixty-nine miscellaneous articles on Science (inBengali)31. The list is given below (the titles aretranslated into English by the present author):Minute Calculation, The Predator Tree, Paper, ALost City, Submarine, The Underground Mansion,Skyscrapers, The Pyre of Ravana, The Diver, TheClock of the Parliament, The Story of Railways,The Story of the Sun, The Story of the Post

Offices, The Land of Asuras, The Galaxy, EarthenUtensils, Kites & Hot Air Balloons, Chloroform,In the Land of Deserts, Lights used in the Warfare,The Fear of Natural Disaster, The Story of Dust,Aurora Borealis, The Absurdity of Astrology, TheStory of Jewelleries, Robbery by Trees, The Storyof Coal, Sinking of Ship, The Strange Light,Pyramid, The Southern Countries, The Earthquake,The Story of Man, Clouds & Rain, The Story ofSpeed, Fire, Library, Boat, The Busy Man,Communication Across the Oceans, In the Landof Saturn, Iron, The Fate of the Earth, Glass,Constituents of our Body, Giant Ships, The Dangerof Flying, Architecture of the Ancient Period, TheGreat Wall of China, The Target, Bioscope,Underground Metro, Word Matching Game, TheStory of Postal Service, The Story of Wood, Soundof Wind, Strange Drama, The Amusing Tower,Ancient Car, False Sound, The Strange Watchman,Radio, Had it been different? Water Column,Boomerang, The Story of Printing Press, The Storyof Cloth, A Fun Game and A Strange Animal.

4. Five technical articles on Photography and Printingof which one article was in Bengali and theremaining four are in English32. The list is givenbelow: Photography (in Bengali), Half-tone FactsSummarized (published in the Penrose Annual,1912), Half-tone Dots, Standardizing the Original(published in the Penrose Annual, 1913-14) andNotes on Systems in Half-tone Operating. The lastfour are purely technical writings and were notmeant for common public. Another article on thePin-hole theory was published in July, 1913 issueof The British Journal of Photography. However,I could not get a copy of the article.

The articles were written in a simple language andlucid style; many of the articles were illustrated.“The factsand information were collected from various Europeanbooks and magazines. But the real values of these articlesare different: the style of story-telling and this style wasunique to Sukumàr Rày”.33

Many writers have indicated the abundance ofscientific elements and innovative thinking in the poemsand stories of Sukumàr Rày. We are, however not goingto discuss them. Nevertheless, it will be difficult to avoidmentioning one story: He÷oràm Hu÷iàrer Diary (Diary ofHe÷oràm Hu÷iàr)34,35. Here, the protagonist, Heúoràm, meetsa sullen-faced strange animal, whom he namedGomràtheriàm (In Bengali Gomrà means sullen) during hisjourney through the Bàndàku÷ Mountains. Next he meets

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another strange animal which howls terribly, whom He÷oràmnames Cillànosauràs (In Bengali, Cillàno means shouting).Here, through fun-filled stories, Sukumàr Rày taught hisreaders how scientific nomenclature is done in Latin orGreek.

An Evaluation of Sukumàr Rày’s PopularScience Writings

In the early 20th century, when school text bookshad very little content on science, and radio and cinemawere yet to arrive, Sande÷ and similar children’s magazineswere perhaps the only link between the children and theouter world. In the words of Buddhadeva Bose whilewriting about Sande÷ and its editor Upendrakishore,“Aurora borealis, pyramids, penguins … this storytelleropened up the real world to the children of Bengal. Weroamed the entire Earth holding his hand … Did welearn about all that in school? We learnt from reading‘Sandesh’, ‘Mouchak’ … Compared to those, the schoolappeared so worthless and the teachers souninspiring!”36 However, writing science for children hasalways been a challenging work; first you cannot useformula, mathematics or jargon, need to use simplelanguage and secondly,“The problems of writing onScience are that the facts and concepts change over time”.The following excerpts will show that Sukumàr Ràyovercame these challenges able handed: “…..as tall asthe Monument!’ When we see a house as high, we exclaim,‘Oh! What a tall house.’ But go around in America once,and that will appear quite small in your eyes. Place afew more monuments upon the Monument, and only thenwill Americans say, ‘Yes, it is somewhat tall!’ Here is apicture of a building in New York – no building anywherein the world is as tall. It is fifty-five storeys high – almostseven hundred and fifty feet! An ordinary three-storeyhouse is about forty feet – it will be seven hundred andfifty feet only if you place nineteen such houses one uponanother! Cities in America are full of buildings thirty orforty stories high! Our heads reel to even imagine this,”37

(from Skyscrapers, English translation taken from GoutamChando Roy, with minor changes).

While writing science for children, Sukumâr Rây actedas a catalyst to instil a sense of scientific temper andinquisitiveness in the minds of children. It was a generalfeeling in the early 20th century (when Indian nationalismwas taking shape in Bengal and fast spreading into theother parts of India) that the children must be empoweredwith science who can intellectually challenge the Britishand can take the Indian nation forward in future. In thewords of Satyajit Ray and Partha Basu, “The enthusiasm

developed during the first half of the twentieth centuryabout the Western Science and Civilization, stronglyimpacted the educated class of this country. Sukumàr Rày’sScience articles bear testimony to this enthusiasms, whichSukumàr Rày tried to instil in young minds. With thesame scientific mind-set, Sukumàr Rày presented thebiographies of Western Scientists, Philosophers andEducationists. He supported the activities of those whotried to dispel the age-old superstitions and blind faith.In addition, he also wrote about the animals and birdsaround us. These writings present the poet and storytellerSukumàr Rày in a different light (as an able Sciencepopulariser); in Bengali science literature, onlyJagadànada Roy can claim this distinction”38.

Concluding Remarks

It is unfortunate that Sukumàr Rày’s name and fameas a science populariser remained obscure for long, anddespite important contributions to the field, hiscontributions as a popular science writer were nevercompared to that of Akshay Kumar Datta, RajendralalMitra, Rev. Krishna Mohan Bandyopadhyay orRamendrasundar Trivedi, not to speak of the stalwarts likeVidyasagar, Bankimchandra, Rabindranath or JagadisChandra Bose! But the popularity of Sukumàr Rày’sscience articles speaks for themselves. To quote from writerSunirmal Basu “We waited for the post the first day ofevery month … Our servant went to the post office in themorning to get it … if we did not see Sande÷ in hishands, our faces fell. We waited eagerly again thefollowing day; our hearts leapt with joy when we sawfrom far the brown packet of Sande÷ lurking from amongother letters”39. Though we can guess that Sande÷ wasnot a commercially successful venture, but during SukumàrRày’s lifetime Sande÷ had readership not only all overBengal, but in places in Bihar, Assam, Odisha, UnitedProvince, Rajputana and other provinces wherever therewas a sizeable Bengali domiciled community. Publicationof Sande÷ stopped in 1925. It was revived in 1929, butagain stopped in 1934. Three decades later, Satyajit Rayrevived it in 196140, but it went through financial ups anddowns; but Sukumàr Rày’s invaluable works had beenpreserved before the collected works were published byAnanda Publishers. Finally, Sukumàr Rày’s contributionsneed to be properly evaluated and his writings should begiven a proper place in the history of sciencecommunications in India as they have inspired generationsof Bengali children and teenagers during last one hundredyears or so.

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References1. Sukumàr Rày, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Sukumar_Ray, Accessed May 03, 20212. ibid.3. Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Wikipedia, https://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upendrakishore_Ray_Chowdhury,Accessed May 03, 2021

4. Gautam Chando Roy, Science for children in a colonialcontext: Bengali juvenile magazines, 1883–1923, BJHSThemes (3), pp. 43-72 (April 2018)

5. Op. cit.[3]6. Op. cit.[1]7. Satyajit Ray & Partha Basu (Ed.), Collected Works of

Sukumàr Rày (in Bengali, ¢%Ñ%˛õyÓ˚ ¢y!£ì˛ƒ ¢õ@˘Ã), CentenaryEdition (Ananda Publishers Ltd., Kolkata, 1987), Vol 2, pp.Front inside cover

8. ibid9. Op. cit. [1]

10. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Science in Bengali Literature (inBengali, ÓD¢y!£ˆÏì˛ƒ !ÓK˛yò) (Baïgãya Vijñàn Pariùad, Kolkata,1960), pp 41-45

11. ibid, pp 45-4712. B K Sen, Growth of Scientific Periodicals in India 1788-

1900, IJHS 37(1), Supplement (March 2002)13. Op. cit. [10], pp 47-4814. Op. cit. [10], pp 48-5015. Op. cit. [10], pp 5116. Op. cit. [10], pp 59-8017. Arun Kumar Biswas, The Era of Science Enthusiasts in

Bengal (1841-1891): Akshay Kumar, Vidyasagar andRajendralala, IJHS, 47 3, pp. 375-425 (2012)

18. Op. cit. [10], pp 86-8819. Op. cit. [16]20. Op. cit. [10], pp 110-13021. University of Heidelberg online reference Library,

https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/fachinfo/suedasien/zeitschriften/bengali/,Accessed May 06, 2021

22. Op cit. [4]23. ibid.24. Op. cit. [3]25. Satyajit Ray (Ed), Serà Sande÷ (1368-87, Bengali Era),

(Ananda Publishers Ltd, Kolkata, 2008), pp 1126. Op cit. [7] pp. Preface to the First Edition27. ibid.28. Op cit. [1]29. Op cit. [7] pp 91-15230. ibid.pp 53-9031. ibid. pp 154-28932. Satyajit Ray & Partha Basu (Ed.), Collected Works of

Sukumàr Rày (in Bengali, ¢%Ñ%˛õyÓ˚ ¢y!£ì˛ƒ ¢õ@˘Ã), CentenaryEdition (Ananda Publishers Ltd., Kolkata, 1988), Vol. 3,pp. 93-94, 112-149

33. Op cit. [26]34. Satyajit Ray & Partha Basu (Ed.), Collected Works of

Sukumâr Rây (in Bengali, ¢%Ñ%˛õyÓ˚ ¢y!£ì˛ƒ ¢õ@˘Ã), CentenaryEdition (Ananda Publishers Ltd., Kolkata, 1987), Vol.1, pp.261-267

35. N C Mondal, Popular Science Writing in Bengali: Past andPresent, Science Reporter, 49(3), pp. 43-45 (March 2012)

36. Buddhadeva Basu, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, KorakSahitya Patrika, pp. 197 (2005), Quoted from [4].

37. Op cit. [4]38. Op cit. [7] pp. Preface to the First Edition39. Sunirmal Basu, Upendrakishorer Sande÷, Korak Sahitya

Patrika, pp. 227 (2005), Quoted from [4].40. Sande÷ (Magazine), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Sandesh_(magazine), Accessed May 03, 2021

Further ReadingAshish Lahiri, Caught between two Cultures – Science in Nineteenth

Century Bengal (THEMA, Kolkata, January 2013)Subodh Mahanti, Sketches of Science Popularization Movements

in Pre and Post Independent India, Sociology of Scienceand Technology, 3(4), pp. 145-157 (2012)