Title: Mukul [The Bud]

Editor(s): Shibanath Shastri, Hemchandra Sarkar

Publisher: Published by Nagendranath Chakraborty from the ‘Mukul Office’ at 93/1 Upper Circular Road. Later issues published by the Rabibashariya Niti-Bidyalay from the ‘Mukul Office’ at 28/2 Cornwallis Street.

Printer: Printed by Purnachandra Das at the Kuntaline Press.

First issue: 1895

Price: Annual subscription – 1 Rupee

About : ‘An illustrated periodical for boys and girls’, Mukul wished to put “the bud of knowledge” in the hands of its young readers, that would –  the editor of the magazine hoped – “blossom forth in fruits and flowers to fill up their lives”. Mainly directed towards children in the age group of 8 to 17, the periodical published original fiction, folk tales, translations, poems, epic and mythological narratives, articles on popular science, history, travel, adventure and sport as well as riddles and tales-in-pictures.
Many authors of eminence wrote for Mukul. The list included illustrious names like Jagadish Chandra Bose, Ramendrasundar Trivedi, Shibnath Shastri, Ramananda Chattopadhyay, Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri, Yogindranath Sarkar, Dinendrakumar Ray and Ram Bramha Sanyal among many others.  A number of women authors like Labanyaprbha Basu, Abala Basu, Hemlata Sarkar, Prasannamayee Devi and Priambada Devi contributed articles on topics related to mythology, history, science, travel and biographies.
Like Sakha, Mukul also drew enthusiastic reviews from contemporary newspapers. The Indian Mirror praised Mukul as “an exceedingly nice little paper, full of interesting and instructive subjects” modeled on the line of Boy’s Own Annual. Congratulating Mukul on its high publishing standards and beautiful prints, Sanjeevani stated that “At first sight the paper appears to be an edition of some illustrated English magazine.”

Illustrations: Illustrated with black and white woodcuts and photographs in two-coloured halftone prints (in the later isssues). Most of the full page halftone illustrations – like those in the Jubilee edition -  were done by U. Ray & Sons.

Note: One of the longest running Bengali children’s periodicals, Mukul was perhaps the only magazine among its contemporaries to have changed its cover page design from time to time.

Pages: 16

Genre: Periodical, Monthly.

Source: The National Library, Kolkata

Shelfmark: 182.Qb. 895.1-20

Pages featured:

A few front covers and inside pages from Mukul