[8] It was translated and published internationally in German, French, Spanish, and other languages; the English-language version reached a peak circulation of about 500,000 copies in the 1970s.
The second target audience is the general public, to whom the magazine was often offered as an instrument for promotion, preaching, recruitment, and conversion.
It also functioned as a fundraising tool, as the devotees who handed out copies would ask for a donation, though this practice ended in the 1980s following public criticism.
It has also reported on the group's practical initiatives, temples, farms, charitable activities, festivals and feasts, and calls to worship.
[3] In 1944, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded Back to Godhead magazine in Calcutta and published it sporadically between 1944 and 1966, despite India's war-related paper shortage.
[10] In 1965 (age 70), he left for New York with the determination to fulfill a mission given to him by his own spiritual guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the English-speaking world.
[3] In the fall of 1966, after establishing the first center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York City, the founder handed over the job of writing and publishing the Back to Godhead magazine to his first disciples.
[10] In the 1970s, through sankirtana (public chanting), the Back to Godhead magazine arose to its height of circulation, doubling each year from 1974 to 1976, peaking near half a million, though it had very few subscribers and was distributed to individuals on street corners.
[3] In the late 1970s, circulation began to drop as ISKCON focused more on small books as a cheaper means to spread their philosophy, which, with a change in readership and evolving format, continued to decline in the 1980s.
[3] In 1991, with a drastically cut circulation, the Back to Godhead magazine reemerged double in size (64 pages) with bimonthly (every two months) issues and was for the first time subscription driven, targeting three audiences: devotees, Indians, and Westerners.