MYSORE: The Wesleyan Mission, which was confined to Mysore, played a vital role in promotion of education, particularly printing Bible in Kannada, setting up the famous Wesleyan Printing Press to publish Kannada books and also print newspapers.
The Wesleyan Methodists have left a mark in old Mysore State, including Bangalore, Shimoga and other places starting more than sixty education institutes including Kannada medium schools. Though Krishnaraja Wadiyar III started the first English Medium School ( Raja School ) in 1833, the Wesleyan Mission, headed by Thomas Hudson, started a school in Bangalore Cantonment in 1834 and conducted the first public examination under the Commissioner Cubbon. The Commissioner, impressed with the performance of the students, donated a cash prize of `500 other than `300 from Governor General Lord Benting. Later, Hudson was made in-charge of the Raja School. The outstanding students were honoured by the Maharaja and the Wesleyan Mission administration. The mission also inspired Wadiyar to start the Maharaja’s College.
The education standards and coaching at the Raja School impressed people to present a memorandum to Wesleyan Mission to start a high school. Hudson saw that around sixty schools were opened before he retired from service. He also came out with ‘Elementary grammar of Kannada Language’ (1859) and also incorporated the Mysore map other than starting a newspaper Harvest Field.
Jeseya Hudson of Wesleyan Mission also stood by the decision of Thomas Hudson and saw that the examination centre of Madras University was started in Mysore. A teacher’s training institute was started in Shimoga too.
The Wesleyan Printing press, like the Basel Mission Press at Mangalore, the Baptist Mission Press in Calcutta, stood for the dissemination of knowledge. The press, started with encouragement from the king Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, was housed in a building constructed on Bangalore- Nilgiri Road. The missionaries also opened a stationery shop which sold note books, papers, pens and laboratory equipment and also published the then highest circulated Kannada newspaper of that time ‘Vruttanta Patrika’. Rev Henry High installed the advanced electric printing press in 1890. The Wesley Printing Press published books both in Kannada and English, made fonts of different size and maintained professionalism in all departments.
The press, with around 130 staff, printed more than 12 lakh pages per year and catered to the needs of the people of the region. The missionaries also published useful books on grammar, dictionaries and Christian literature.
The high quality and professionalism at Wesley Printing Press attracted the government and consequently the Central Sahithya Academy’s Kannada works printed at the press. Poet Laureate Kuvempu’s works were published at the Wesley Printing Press. The press was wound up in early 1970s.