236 BENGALI LITERATURE and from the seventh number it bore on its front the following motto দর্পণে মুখসৌন্দর্ধ্যমিব কাধ্যবিচক্ষণাঃ। বৃত্তান্তমিহ জানন্ত সমাচারস্য দর্পণে ॥ Marshman tells us that the paper was 90 _ baptised because the name (Mirror of News) was associated with the earliest English news- Its claim to be regarded as the fire; letter.‘ But its claim to ‘be জন্য) য়া as the earliest Bengali Geatuendil bolones (ta eee ed g the Bengal Gazette newspaper is not, inspite of current 1816-1818) of Ganga- ai bys ও টিকটিকি and popular opinion,? justifiable, for the first Bengali newspaper was not the Samachar Darpan but the Bengal Gazette. The latter journal, now scarce, was published for the first time in 1816 by one Gangadhar’ Bhattacharya of whom little, however, is known. This paper lasted for two years, having been extinguished in 1818.4 But though not the first newspaper in Bengali, Samachar Darpan practically laid the foundation of vernacular journalism in Bengali by directing the attention and energy of the Bengali people to a neglected literary field which now » See extract from G. Smith, Twelve English Statesmen, quoted at p. 233 foot-note. 2 It has been so called by many an eminent writer, eg., J. 0. Marshman, History of Serampore Mission, vol ii,Jp. 168,and History of Bengal, p. 251; Long, Cal. Rev., 1850, vol. xiii, p. 145 (but not in the Catalogue where he has corrected the mistake); Friend of India, Sept. 19,1850 ; Smith, Life of Carey, p. 204; Dinesh Ch. Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature (1911), p. 877; ete.
- He must not however be confounded with Gangakéior Bhattacharya.
- Long’s Descriptive Catalogue, also his Return, ete. already cited ;
But in the Retwrn, etc., it is said to have continued for one year only. But see Sahitya Parigat Patrika, vol. v, pp. 248-250; Cal, Rev. 1907, p. 298. We learn from Rajnarayah Basu (Bangala Bhasa O Sahitya Bigayak Bakrta, p. 59) that Gahgadhar was well-known as the pub- lisher of illustrated editions of Annadamargal, ete.
