"Though the Jesuits began to set up printing presses in several
parts of Portuguese held India, trying their hands, with varying
degrees of success, on the Kannada and Devanagari scripts,
they did not succeed in establishing the idea of printing firmly on
the subcontinent and toward the middle of 17th century all their
efforts came to an end. Fifty years later in 1711, Bartholomaus
Zieganbalg persuaded the society for promoting Christian
knowledge in London to send a further Portuguese printing
press to India and soon afterwards he was able to obtain a set
of ' Malabari ' letters from Germany. From then on printing seems
to have progressed steadily in India."

European Missionarires (sic) and the Study of Dravidian
Languages

(Notes on some books and manuscripts held in British
Museum)
Albertine Gaur
Assistant Keeper, Department of Oriental Printed Books and
Manuscripts, British Museum, London, UK.

http://www.tamil-heritage.org/ebook/gaur/gaurindx.html

Okay, elsewhere I have found reference to the first books printed
in these languages by British presses. Maybe Tamil was earlier
by quite a bit - it is easier than Devanagari.

Suzanne