E-Paper
Struggling to meet surge in demand, Gita Press to upload Manas on website
Trustee of Gita Press Devi Dayal Agarwal confirmed that by January 15, Ramcharit Manas would be available on the website in Oriya, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannad, English, Bengali, Hindi, Assamese and Nepali languages. The server of the Press has been upgraded so that 1 lakh people can read or download the text at a time.
GORAKHPUR/KANPUR As the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya approaches, people from all walks of life are eager to witness and participate in some way in this significant chapter of history being written. Small wonder the demand for religious books like Ramcharit Manas, Hanuman Chalisa and Sundar Kand has surged to the extent that the availability of these revered scriptures has become a challenge in the run-up to ceremony, as the stocks have depleted.
With demand pouring in from all corners of the country, the world famous Gita Press, Gorakhpur is touching the crest of publication of religious texts like Ramcharit Manas and Hanuman Chalisa.
However, for the first time since its establishment, the Press is struggling hard to cope with the increasing demand. For this reason, it decided on Saturday to upload Ramcharit Manas on its website www.gitapres.org in 10 languages.
Trustee of Gita Press Devi Dayal Agarwal confirmed that by January 15, Ramcharit Manas would be available on the website in Oriya, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannad, English, Bengali, Hindi, Assamese and Nepali languages. The server of the Press has been upgraded so that 1 lakh people can read or download the text at a time.
Gita Press officials revealed that demand for Ramcharit Manas and Hanuman Chalisa had started rising from October. In the past three months, the Press had published and sold 3.27 lakh copies of Ramcharit Manas and currently it was running out of stock. Similarly, 13.50 lakh copies of Hanuman Chalisa were printed and that was also running out of stock.
Manager of Gita Press Lalmani Tiwari said that demand for pocket size Ramcharit Manas from Rajasthan, Bihar and other states had crossed 1.59 lakh mark. Currently, they were facing hardships in coping with the demand, so they had decided to upload it on the website .
Lalmani Tiwari confirmed that the Press was able to meet only 75% of the demand. He said that the demand for Sundar Kand had also increased significantly and they had published and sold 4.75 crore copies, so that by the end of December it went out of stock.
Tiwari said that previously they used to publish a maximum of 75,000 copies of Ramcharit Manas in a month and currently, despite publishing 1 lakh copies a month they were not able to meet the demand. Order of 50,000 copies had been received from Jaipur and similar number from Bharatpur. Regional offices were also receiving extra orders for Ramcharit Manas and Ayodhya Darshan but their publication in a short span of time was not possible, he added.
Trustee Devi Dayal Agarwal said free text on the website was a ‘prasad’ of Ram Utsav for devotees. Apart from Ramcharit Manas, Ayodhya Darshan (new edition) and Ayodhya Mahatmya would also be uploaded, he confirmed.
Gita Press has also decided to establish its outlet on Ram temple.
Meanwhile, in Kanpur, Gita Press outlets have run out of stock of Ramcharit Manas and Hanuman Chalisa.
The manager of an outlet Girdhari Lal said the Press was printing 75,000 of Ramcharit Manas and 3.25 lakh copies of Hanuman Chaliasa every month. Since the date of consecration was announced, the demand had reached unrealistic levels, he said, adding that he had sold more than 30,000 copies in two months in Kanpur and nearby areas .
“We could get only 25 copies of Manas and Chalisa in the current stock; all were purchased within minutes,” he said.
Rakesh Shukla, a basketball coach, who came to the outlet with a demand for 2,000 copies of Ramcharit Manas and 2,000 copies of Hanuman Chalisa, said he and his brothers wanted to give the religious books to people on the occasion of Pran Pratishtha.
“I have tried everywhere to get the copies but could not, even Gita Press has not taken the order,” he rued.
( With inputs from Haider Naqvi in Kanpur)
