''Saraswati'' was the first

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

monthly magazine of India. Founded in 1900, by Chintamani Ghosh, the proprietor of Indian Press, in Allahabad, its success under the editorship of littérateur Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi (1903–1920), led to flourishing of modern Hindi prose and poetry especially in Khariboli dialect. It became the most influential periodical in the Hindi literature during the first two decades of the 20th century.

History

Based in Georgetown, Allahabad, Ghosh founded Indian Press in 1884, mainly to publish educational books, though gradually shifted to publishing general interest books. However, Ghosh didn't have much experience in publishing literary works. Thus in late 1899, he wrote to '' Nagari Pracharini Sabha'' in Varanasi, which worked for promotion of Devnagari script, seeking help with editor and writers for founding a literary Hindi magazine. Eventually, first issue of Saraswati was published on 1 January 1900. The other famous

publications of Indian press was children's magazine Balsakha, weekly newspaper "Deshdoot", magazines for farmers "Hal" etc. Indian Press was also the earliest promoters and publisher of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

's work, including '' Geetanjali'', whose rights he held till 1922 before transferring it to Viswa Bharati University. Dwivedi, the doyen of modern Hindi literature, remained its editors from 1903 to 1920, and provided a platform for upcoming writers in Hindi, where many writers of repute, including Premchand and Maithili Sharan Gupt got published. Through the magazine, he not only gave a new direction to Hindi literature by bringing in his social reformist agenda, but also exerted his lasting influence of the formation of style and sensibility during this twenty-year period of Hindi literature. Today it is known as "Dwivedi Yuga" (Age of Dwivedi) after him. Other eminent editors of Saraswati were Padumlal Punnalal Bakshi of Rajnandgaon, Thakur Srinath Singh and Devidutt Shukl. In 2013, President of India, Pranab Mukherjee while unveiling a statue Ghosh at Jagat Taran Girls' Inter College, Allahabad, remembered his "great contribution towards promoting Hindi language and literature." ''Saraswati'' folded in 1975. It was revived in 2020 and is now being published by Indian Press. In 2020 Devendra Shukla was appointed its editor. In January 2022 Ravi Nandan Singh and Anupam Parihar were appointed editor of the magazine.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saraswati 1900 establishments in India Hindi-language magazines Literary magazines published in India Monthly magazines published in India Magazines established in 1900 Mass media in Prayagraj