Tamil History: The Spread of the Publishing Industry and Technology 1578 to 1873

This monograph tells the fascinating history of how since the advent of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century books came to be printed in Tamil. It explains how the printing press served as instrument of domination under the European missionaries and it gradually came to be spread among the natives under the East India companies and became the bridge between the colonizer and the natives. The study reconstructs the map of the publishing industry and technology of the early modern age and analyses the different types of production like the journals, pamphlets, newspapers, calendars and advertisements, their main characteristics, the socio-cultural composition of their recipients, their methods of use and dimension. The volume explores initiation of modern prose in Tamil as a transformative achievement through printing and how it contributed to the literary journey of Tamils, by examining the close connection with religious, educative and scientific practices promoted. The enriched printings changed the cognitive systems of learning and reading by optimizing and speeding up the operations in Tamil society. It helps in understanding the use of publications by broadening the horizon of understanding our modernity.