26 – Printing to Instruct and Instructing to Print in Early Modern and Colonial South Asia

October 2, 2025
2:00 pm
Triplex 1017
This panel proposes to examine how printing technologies transformed modes of instruction in early modern and colonial South Asia. Prior to the rise of European-styled printing presses in South Asia, instruction in academic, religious and other social settings was undertaken with the aid of a range of oral and inscribed materials. In what ways did new printing technologies continue and/or transform the means and scope of instruction among dedicated pupils and lay communities? Were didactic and pedagogical genres reimagined in light of the new printing technologies? Did print give rise to new genres that would fulfill the instructional and educational needs of specific communities? How were printing technologies, in turn, reliant upon and transformed by the preexisting cultures of instruction? Although recent scholarship has substantially improved our understanding of the transition from predominantly handcrafted manuscript cultures to technologically sophisticated print cultures, the realm of instruction strangely remains severely underexplored. It is generally assumed that the growth of print media and literacy were concurrent and mutually reinforcing. Precisely how do printing technologies give impetus to instructional, didactic and pedagogical methods so as to enhance the state of literacy and knowledge production remains to be examined. Our panelists grapple with this issue by exploring the transregional and interconnected history of print and instructional materials in diverse communities of South Asia. Their research seeks to make original contributions to multiple disciplines; most notably, history, religious studies, and area studies, among others.

Convenors

Dr. Martina Palladino
Dr. Pranav Prakash

Presentations

How Unorthodox Printing sought to transform Colonial Mithila?
Prakash Pranav - Christ Church, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Aṟabimalayāḷa Akṣaramāla: Polemic of Script and Language Pedagogy in Muslim Print Publics.
Perumannil Sidhick Ameen - South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
Printing to Instruct Vedānta through the Rāmcaritmānas
Pastore Rosina - Ghent University, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
‘Adapted to Modern Requirements’: Printing Avestan and Middle Persian Manuals in Nineteenth-Century Bombay
Palladino Martina - Ghent University, Universiteit Gent (UGent), Gent, Belgium
Between Mediums: The Dynamics of Religious Instruction in the Nineteenth Century
Mamtora Bhakti - Department of Religious Studies and Classics, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
Handwriting, notes and marginalia: The story of the Ādinarayankathā
Depala Kush - South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
Understanding the Everyday Identity Formation Through Anti-Caste Popular Prints within the Urban Spaces of Mumbai
Bhosale Devyani - Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
Vernacular Publishing Houses in South Asia: A Biography of Manohara Grantha
N S Gundur - Department of Studies and Research in English, Tumkur University, Tumakuru, India