Gita Press

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Gita Press

Founded	1923
Founder	Jay Dayal Goyandka and Ghanshyam Das Jalan
Country of origin	India
Headquarters location	Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh
Distribution	Worldwide
Publication types	Hindu Religious Books and Kalyan Masik
Nonfiction topics	Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma
No. of employees	350
Official website	gitapress.org

The Gita Press is the world's largest publisher of Hindu religious texts.^[1] It is located in Gorakhpur city of India's Uttar Pradesh state. It was founded in 1923 by Jaya Dayal Goyandka and Ghanshyam Das Jalan for promoting the principles of Sanatana Dharma. Hanuman Prasad Poddar better known as "Bhaiji" was the founding and the lifetime editor of its noted magazine who also wrote articles with his pen name "SHIV", Kalyan.^[2] It started publishing in 1927, with a circulation of 1,600 copies and at present its print order had reached 2.5 lakh (in 2012). The Gita Press archives contain over 3,500 manuscripts including over 100 interpretations of the Gita.^[3]
Seth Jaya Dayal Goyandka, Shri Hanuman Prasad Poddar and Shri Ghanshyam Das Jalan, Gita preachers set up the Gita Press on April 29, 1923, as a unit of Gobind Bhawan Karyalaya registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (presently governed by the West Bengal Societies Act, 1960). Five months later it acquired its first printing machine for Rs 600. Since its establishment, the Gita Press has published approximately 410 million copies of the Gita (in different editions) and 70.0 million copies of the Ramcharitamanas, at subsidized prices.^[3]

Gita Press Gate, with its pillars inspired from the cave temples of Ellora, the gopuram, by Meenakshi temple, Madurai

It temporarily shut down in December 2014 over wage issues,^[4] but work resumed a few days later.^[5]

Publications

Magazines

• Kalyank (in Hindi) is a monthly magazine being published since 1927. It has articles devoted to various religious topics promoting uplifting thought and good deeds. Writings by Indian saints and scholars are regularly published in the magazine.
• Kalyana-Kalpataru (in English) is also a monthly and has been published since 1934. Its contents are similar to Kalyan.

Neither of these magazines runs any advertisements.

Gita Press Gorakhpur outlet at Kanpur Railway Station

Religious texts

These texts are published in Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Oriya and other languages of India.

• Shrimad Bhagvad Gita (several formats)
• The Mahabharata
• Shri Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas (several formats), Telugu version (2002) ^[6]
• Other works by Tulsidas
• Valmiki Ramayana (several formats)
• Scriptures (Puranas, Upanishads and others)
• Works by Soordas
• Books by Swami Ramsukhdas
• Books by Hanuman Prasad Poddar
• Books by Jaydayal Goyandaka

Other publications