ABSTRACT
This chapter follows the many cultural forms in which Bidyasundar was recreated in the various decades of the 19th century using several possible literary and narrative modes for public and private use. Each of these forms provided a different opportunity for new publications that the chapter takes note of as well as the many structural and stylistic reconstitutions of the tale. And this is how the competitive world of publishing houses is discovered. Aware of the exceptional popularity of Bidyasundar and its widespread presence in the world of print and performance, contemporary scholars explored the lineage of the tale in medieval compositions. Its unique feature lay in that it was a story of love embedded in a religious text, with strong traditions of being recast in different kinds of verse compositions. In the estimate of new literary scholarship, Bidyasundar‘s popularity was an echo of past fashions but its religious significance was in its repeated oral readings at home and in public places. It allows us to pry into the practices of consuming books.
