This ‘simplified’ character set, which was used to typeset his works, became known as the “Vidyasagar sort’.” (Ross, 129-130) The conjuncts listed by Vidyasagara replaced Carey’s as the standard set to be taught in schools. These practices still occur in printed text. The author, who is known to have concerned himself with typographic problems, explains in the preface to the first part the necessity for introducing the dotted characters য়, ঢ়, and ড় the relegation of anusvara ং, visarga ঃ, and candrabindu ঁ to the list of consonants (ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ) and ক্ষ to the conjuncts and the omission of ঋ and ৯ which were to be regarded as obsolete. “In typographic terms Vidyasagar’s Bengali primer, Varnaparicaya, is of great importance. It has also been alleged that Vidyasagar introduced the dotted characters য়, ঢ়, and ড় and. The most significant contribution he made to Bengali typeface design was in standardizing and simplifying the set of consonant conjuncts (যুক্তক্ষর), but this was a task of filtering down a wide range of previously designed letterforms, not designing new ones. “He also rationalized and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first (wooden) Bengali type in 1780.” (footnoted source: Murshid Ghulam, “Vidyasagar, Pundit Iswar Chandra” Banglapedia)Īcknowledged, Vidyasagar was an amazing person and made a tremendous contribution to the Bengali language, but his contribution to typeface design was minimal at best.
The current Wikipedia article reflects public opinion well: However, the widespread belief is that he was the primary designer of the current alphabet. Most likely this misleading appellation is due to his authorship of the popular alphabet primer where folks first encountered the Bengali letters. However, in Bangladesh’s top public universities (such as Dhaka and Rajshahi’s Graphic Design departments), it’s generally referred to not as Linotype Bengali but as the “Vidyasagar” typeface, thereby implying its originator is Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a literary Renaissance man of the 1800’s. Fiona Ross working with Tim Halloway and a team from the Anandabazar Patrika who commissioned it. The typeface is Linotype Bengali, designed in 1982 by Dr. Since the 1980’s one single typeface has become synonymous with the Bengali script – primarily known under clone names such as “SutonnyMJ”, “SolaimanLipi”, “Boishakhi”, or “Shree Bangali 0550.” Apart from almost negligible differences, these fonts are basically identical.
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