C.M.S Press, the first printing press in Kerala was established in 1821 by Benjamin Baily, a British missionary, at Chalukunnu in Kottayam district.Njana Nikshepam (in Malayalam:ജ്ഞാനനിക്ഷേപം), the first printed News paper published in Kerala, has been printed and published from 1848 from this press. |
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Printing introduced by B. Bailey led Kerala to universalisation of public instruction, development of means of communication and dissemination of knowledge. This in turn culminated in social reforms, enlightenment and development of culture. Publication of books, journals and periodicals along with universal education paved the way for the development of Malayalam prose and its standardization. |
Benjamin Bailley's Contribution to Kottayam
Benjamin Bailey was the progenitor of printing and book publishing in Malayalam, the native language (mother-tongue) of Kerala. It was he who established the first printing press (the Kottayam CMS press) and started printing Malayalam in Kerala. He was the first lexicographer in the language. Besides this, he was a well versed author and translator. He founded CMS Kottayam station, which has continued to be the centre of the society’s work in Travancore (Kerala); established the printing press, from which have issued complete editions of the Malayalam Bible, Prayer-book, Dictionaries, &c., translated and compiled by him, and printed under his superintendence with press and type of his own construction (the first type cut in the language). He cut the types and constructed a wooden printing press with the help of local silversmiths from descriptions given in an encyclopaedia. B. Bailey, who moulded the round and sleek Malayalam types making use of indigenous know-how, is rightly considered the first Malayalam typographer. The types moulded by Bailey are characterized by legibility and economy. The fact that Malayalam still low the shape of Bailey’s types attests to their beauty and usefulness. He also supervised the making of two beautiful founts of Malayalam types in England, while he was on furlough, printed the Malayalam Gospels there with those type, he and his eldest son being improvised compositors of the same and bought them back to Kottayam. The moulds cut in England were used for a long time in the CMS press at Kottayam.
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