History of Bengali Language and Literature c11.13

c11.13

the people, amongst whom he was called upon to work, had become the all-absorbing matter of his thought. Through the labours of Panchanana Karmakāra and his relative and colleague Manohara the art of punch-cutting became domesticated in India. We do not, however, mean to say that the art of printing in a crude form was not known in Bengal before Charles Wilkins came to the field. We have come across a Ms. nearly 200 years old which was printed from engraved wooden blocks. But the art was not in general use; a stray endeavour for decorative purposes does not prognosticate a system or a regular cultivation of the art, so we may rightly pass over it.