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90 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE the Scriptures, Carey and his colleagues also printed editions of many vernacular works, amongst them being the Rdmdyan. Most of these editions perished in a fire which destroyed the printing-press at Seram- pore in 1812. In 1818 Carey began to publish a newspaper in Bengali, which was the first newspaper printed in any oriental language, and was the fore- runner of the many newspapers now issued from the vernacular press. All this work of Carey and his co- workers helped greatly in the development of vernacular literature. Raja Siv Prasad.— The new literary dialect which Lallu Ji Lai produced has not been without its critics. As it includes many Sanskrit words it is a speech not easy to be understood except by the learned. It tends to fall into the same extreme as Urdu. Raja Siv Prasad (1823-1895) is especially remembered as one who tried to popularise a literary speech midway between the Persian-ridden Urdu, and the Sanskrit-ridden High Hindi, which he believed to be nearer the colloquial speech of the people. The controversy is by no means settled yet. Raj Siv Prasad was the grand- son of the poetess Bibi Ratan Kunwar. In his youth he was Vakil to the Maharaja of Bharatpur, but after- wards he entered the English service. He rose to the position of Nur Munshi and became an Inspector in the Department of Public Instruction. He was eventually granted the hereditary title of Raja. Besides trans- lations and other works, all of which show the modern influence, he was the author of a great many text-books for schools. The Printing- Press.— The outstanding feature of the development of Hindi literature in modern times has been the production of a very large number of works in prose. This has been very much facilitated by the use of the printing-press. It was at the College press at Fort William that printing was first used for Hindi works, but at first the expense hindered its rapid development, and the ungraceful characters of the type were not regarded with favour. The work