GITA PRESS GORAKHPUR

THE GITA PRESS

At the age of five years that day I surreptitiously entered my  Grandfather's room when no one was there.We were visiting him during the summer holidays.

A book lying on the table caught my attention because of the multicoloured cover painting.and I started turning over  its quarto size large pages. It was the annual number of the religious magazine KALYAN . There were mind blowing full page pictures in vivid colours - of Krishna with Radha,  of Ram going into exile with Sita and Lakshman,  of Arjuna in a chariot driven by Krishna and so many more.

That was my first introduction to the cultural magazine Kalyan and the Gita Press Gorakhpur.

In the year 1923 a team of three persons set about the task of making available to masses at a very affordable price the great works of hindu religion and culture. They established a printing press at Gorakhpur, a city in north India, and Sri Hanuman Prasad poddar became its lifetime  chief. Sri Poddar  launched the monthly religious cultural magazine  KALYAN in 1927.

From an initial circulation of a few hundred for the first issue  it print order  has since touched nearly three lakh.  In the last 90 years over 65 crore books from Mahabharata, Ramayana, Ram Charitmanas and Shrimad Bhagwad Gita to books on numerous fasts and rituals observed in Hindu homes have been published in more than 14 languages .

Gita press Gorakhpur is the torch bearer of hindu religious cultural literature.