Books on Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and Vedanta literature worth over Rs 50 lakh were sold in the recently-concluded 47th International Kolkata Book Fair.
Udbodhan, the oldest publishing house of Ramakrishna Mission selling vernacular literature, sold books worth Rs 22 lakh at the book fair. The sale proceeds show a steady rise in sales in the past two years. In 2023, books published by Udbodhan, worth Rs 13 lakh were sold while in 2022, books worth Rs 8 lakh were sold.
Swami Aryeshananda of Udbodhan said recently there is a trend among young readers, aged between 35 and 40 years, to buy books on Shastras. He said Udbodhan thought to reprint 300 copies of Advaita Vedanta as it was felt that it would be difficult to get buyers for this difficult book. However, the apprehension was proved wrong when 1,000 buyers pre-ordered the book. “I am not going to buy the logic that people, particularly the younger ones, are not reading books. There is a recent trend among the youths to buy Ramakrishna Vivekananda Vedanta literature.
Swami Vivekananda had started Udbodhan, the Bengali monthly organ of Ramakrishna Mission in 1899. Udbodhan is the only magazine in any Indian language that has been published uninterruptedly from its inception. Swamiji had written the foreword in the first issue. Swami Trigunatitananda was the first editor.
Swami Nityamuktananda, president Ramakrishna Math, Bagbazar said major changes have been brought in the books published by Udbodhan. “Now, the books are sleek, smart-looking and the weights are light. The printing quality along with the quality of paper has gone up remarkably. Our books can now compete with books published by the big publishing houses in Kolkata.”
Dipankar Mukherjee, who buys books published by Udbodhan frequently, echoed Maharaj’s voice, “The printing quality along with the quality of paper have been impeccable and the books are available at an affordable price.”
The most sought after books are the Bengali version of Swamiji’s letters, Bharate Bibekananda, the Bengali translation of lectures from Colombo to Almora among others.