Amar Chitra Katha
Encyclopedia
Amar Chitra Katha (Amar Chitra Katha PL)is one of India
's largest selling comic book
series, with more than 90 million copies sold in 20 Indian languages. Founded in 1967, the imprint has more than 400 titles that retell stories from the great India
n epics, mythology, history, folklore, and fables in a comic book format. It was created by Anant Pai, and published by India Book House
. In 2007, the imprint and all its titles were acquired by a new venture called ACK Media. On September 17, 2008, a new website by ACK-media was launched.
in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana
, who was Rama
's mother?".
The above is an oft-told story of how ACK was founded beginning with ‘Uncle Pai’, in Mumbai in 1967. However, Outlook Magazine
has this article about the genesis of this popular comic series: The idea and proposal for Amar Chitra Katha was made by a Bangalore book salesman called G.K. Ananthram which led to the first Amar Chitra Katha comics being produced in 1965—in Kannada, not English. “The English ACK titles begin from number eleven because the first ten were in Kannada,” clarifies Ananthram. To Anathram’s satisfaction, the 1965 Kannada ACK venture was a great commercial success which lead to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently, and the rest is history. “They brought in Anant Pai” says Ananthram. “And he built a wonderful team and a great brand.”
Writers like Kamala Chandrakant, Margie Sastry, Subba Rao, Debrani Mitra and C.R Sharma joined the creative team of Amar Chitra Katha, with Anant Pai taking on the role of editor and co-writer on most scripts. The notable illustrators, other than Ram Waeerkar, were Dilip Kadam, Sanjeev Waeerkar, Souren Roy, C.D Rane, Ashok Dongre, V.B. Halbe, Geoffrey Fowler and Pratap Mullick.
like the Mahabharata
which is available in a 3 volume 1300+ pages set.
Occasionally there were "bumper" issues with 90 pages, most collecting stories of a similar type from individual issues( Example: Monkey Stories From The Hitopadesha, Tales of Birbal
and some being longer stories The Story of Rama
). As the epic stories became more popular, the team began to publish stories based on Indian history, of men and women belonging to different regions and religions and also on stories based on Sanskrit
as well as regional classics. The continuous popularity of the comics led to reprints being issued frequently, which ensured that the back-issues remained in print throughout the seventies and the eighties. At the height of its popularity, in the mid-eighties, it had been translated into Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit and Urdu and selling half a million copies a month. Some titles were also translated into French, Spanish, German, Swahili, Fijian, Indonesian
, and Serbo-Croat.
Towards the mid-nineties, the original comics were reprinted in sleeker and more durable editions, with thick cardstock covers and better colour separations. Today, Amar Chitra Katha has a national footprint across all major book retailers, hundreds of small bookstores, and tens of thousands of vendors. It is the best-selling children's publication in most large format stores.
In 2007, the publisher created a new online store that offers all the titles with shipping worldwide. The titles are divided in following categories
Later, when the comic added historical topics, it proved very helpful to students. For most, Indian history, a jumble of names and dates, came alive as stories. The detailed research of architecture, costumes, regional flavours and facts ensured that the comics were widely accepted into the mainstream, both parents and teachers using them as educational aids. To an extent, these books, with their homogenized and unbiased character descriptions went a long way in promoting national integration and increasing inter-provincial awareness throughout the country.
It should be mentioned that the series steered clear of controversy, taming down content and violence and adhering to strict self-censorship.
Popular ACK Titles are available in Apple iTunes Store.
Popular ACK Titles are also available in Apple iBooks Store.
The illustrations in Amar Chitra Katha created a generation of Indians who could visualize historical and mythological characters only through these. These were often not very thoroughly researched and true picturisations, but were later emulated in TV series like 'Mahabharata' and 'Ramayana'. A lot of these were derivatives of artist Raja Ravi Varma
's paintings and depictions. The simplistic portrayal of characters as villains and heroes (much like the ones in mainstream Hindi movies) betrayed an association with certain ethnic stereotypes. For example, all demons were portrayed with dark complexion.
Though some of these criticisms held valid in some comic series, many of the critics themselves are often politically motivated by the ideologies of their religion or academic institution; prejudice itself frequently forms the basis of some criticisms.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
's largest selling comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series, with more than 90 million copies sold in 20 Indian languages. Founded in 1967, the imprint has more than 400 titles that retell stories from the great India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n epics, mythology, history, folklore, and fables in a comic book format. It was created by Anant Pai, and published by India Book House
India Book House
India Book House Pvt. Limited is an importer, distributor and publisher of books and magazines in India.Formed in 1952, India Book House published paperback editions of children's authors such as Enid Blyton and Frederick Forsyth, as well as magazines such as Tintin and Asterix, often in Indian...
. In 2007, the imprint and all its titles were acquired by a new venture called ACK Media. On September 17, 2008, a new website by ACK-media was launched.
Creation and creators
The comic series was started by Anant Pai in an attempt to teach Indian children about their cultural heritage. He was shocked that Indian students could answer questions on Greek and Roman mythology, but were ignorant of their own history, mythology and folklore. It so happened that a quiz contest aired on DoordarshanDoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
, who was Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
's mother?".
The above is an oft-told story of how ACK was founded beginning with ‘Uncle Pai’, in Mumbai in 1967. However, Outlook Magazine
has this article about the genesis of this popular comic series: The idea and proposal for Amar Chitra Katha was made by a Bangalore book salesman called G.K. Ananthram which led to the first Amar Chitra Katha comics being produced in 1965—in Kannada, not English. “The English ACK titles begin from number eleven because the first ten were in Kannada,” clarifies Ananthram. To Anathram’s satisfaction, the 1965 Kannada ACK venture was a great commercial success which lead to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently, and the rest is history. “They brought in Anant Pai” says Ananthram. “And he built a wonderful team and a great brand.”
Writers like Kamala Chandrakant, Margie Sastry, Subba Rao, Debrani Mitra and C.R Sharma joined the creative team of Amar Chitra Katha, with Anant Pai taking on the role of editor and co-writer on most scripts. The notable illustrators, other than Ram Waeerkar, were Dilip Kadam, Sanjeev Waeerkar, Souren Roy, C.D Rane, Ashok Dongre, V.B. Halbe, Geoffrey Fowler and Pratap Mullick.
The comics
The original printings of Amar Chitra were not in full colour—because of budgetary constraints, the panels were printed using yellow, blue and green. Subsequent issues, however, changed to full colour. All Amar Chitra Katha books stuck to a monthly (later fortnightly) 30-page format, with emphasis on lucid, entertaining storylines. In addition to the 'singles' format the stories are also available as hardcover 3-in-1 and 5-in-1 bundles. There are special editions of the epicsEPICS
The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System is a software environment used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large experiments. EPICS also provides SCADA capabilities...
like the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
which is available in a 3 volume 1300+ pages set.
Occasionally there were "bumper" issues with 90 pages, most collecting stories of a similar type from individual issues( Example: Monkey Stories From The Hitopadesha, Tales of Birbal
Birbal
Raja Birbal was the Grand Vizier of the Mughal court in the administration of the Mughal emperor Akbar. He one of his most trusted members along with being a part of Akbar's inner council of nine advisors, known as the navaratna, a Sanskrit word meaning nine jewels...
and some being longer stories The Story of Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
). As the epic stories became more popular, the team began to publish stories based on Indian history, of men and women belonging to different regions and religions and also on stories based on Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
as well as regional classics. The continuous popularity of the comics led to reprints being issued frequently, which ensured that the back-issues remained in print throughout the seventies and the eighties. At the height of its popularity, in the mid-eighties, it had been translated into Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit and Urdu and selling half a million copies a month. Some titles were also translated into French, Spanish, German, Swahili, Fijian, Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, and Serbo-Croat.
Towards the mid-nineties, the original comics were reprinted in sleeker and more durable editions, with thick cardstock covers and better colour separations. Today, Amar Chitra Katha has a national footprint across all major book retailers, hundreds of small bookstores, and tens of thousands of vendors. It is the best-selling children's publication in most large format stores.
In 2007, the publisher created a new online store that offers all the titles with shipping worldwide. The titles are divided in following categories
- Fables & Folktales (e.g. PanchatantraPanchatantraThe Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...
) - Mythology (e.g. The Ramayana)
- The Epics (e.g. The Ramayana)
- Humour & wit
- Biographies (e.g. Mahatma GandhiMahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
) - Literary Classics
- 3 in 1 Titles
- 5 in 1 Titles
- Special Issues
Cultural significance
Amar Chitra Katha was launched at a time when Indian society was slowly moving away from the traditional joint family system, because of (among other things) socio-economic constraints and urbanization. In a joint family system, grandparents would regale the children of the household with tales from folklore and the epics, and the Amar Chitra Katha series served to fill the void left by grandparents in the smaller nuclear families in urban areas. The choice of English as the primary language led it to reach the majority of children who studied in English medium schools.Later, when the comic added historical topics, it proved very helpful to students. For most, Indian history, a jumble of names and dates, came alive as stories. The detailed research of architecture, costumes, regional flavours and facts ensured that the comics were widely accepted into the mainstream, both parents and teachers using them as educational aids. To an extent, these books, with their homogenized and unbiased character descriptions went a long way in promoting national integration and increasing inter-provincial awareness throughout the country.
It should be mentioned that the series steered clear of controversy, taming down content and violence and adhering to strict self-censorship.
Modernisation
Amar Chitra Katha has evolved over times. Now it is available as a digital media in more means from online access to mobile phones. ACK-Media has recently partnered with iRemedi Corp of Atlanta, GA to deliver Amar Chitra Katha comics on the iOS platform. Popular Amar Chitra Katha Comics were launched on the iPhone platform by iRemedi and Apple on 5th May, 2009. Amar Chitra Katha comics have been adapted for the iOS platform for readers to enjoy panel by panel reading experience on the iPads, iPhones and iPod touches on iRemedi's ETHER*MEDIA viewer solution. More information can be found at iRemedi's website. iRemedi has enabled the ACK collection within Apple iBooks app as well.Popular ACK Titles are available in Apple iTunes Store.
Popular ACK Titles are also available in Apple iBooks Store.
Criticism
The stories are often simplistic and sometimes rely on authentic but singular sources for the script. This has led to the criticism that they should not be considered as "history".The illustrations in Amar Chitra Katha created a generation of Indians who could visualize historical and mythological characters only through these. These were often not very thoroughly researched and true picturisations, but were later emulated in TV series like 'Mahabharata' and 'Ramayana'. A lot of these were derivatives of artist Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter from the princely state of Travancore who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana...
's paintings and depictions. The simplistic portrayal of characters as villains and heroes (much like the ones in mainstream Hindi movies) betrayed an association with certain ethnic stereotypes. For example, all demons were portrayed with dark complexion.
Though some of these criticisms held valid in some comic series, many of the critics themselves are often politically motivated by the ideologies of their religion or academic institution; prejudice itself frequently forms the basis of some criticisms.
Further reading
- Love revives Indian comics After a break of 4 years, Amar Chitra Katha launches a new title on Mother Teresa: Little Acts Of Love, on August 26, 2010, to celebrate the Mother's 100th birth anniversary.
- India's Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes, by Karline McLain, Indiana University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-253-22052-3.
- The Classic Popular: Amar Chitra Katha (1967-2007), by Nandini Chandra, Yoda Press, 2008. ISBN 81-903634-3-3.3
- "Amar Chitra Katha: Western Forms, Indian Contents", by Sanjay Sircar, Bookbird, A Journal of International Children's Literature, 2000, 38, Nr. 4, p. 35-36.
- "From Self-Knowledge to Super Heroes: The Story of Indian Comics", by Aruna Rao, 2001, in: Lent, A. John (Ed.),
- Illustrating Asia, Comics, Humour Magazines, and Picture Books, Richmond, p. 37-63.
- "India Book House and Amar Chitra Katha (1970-2002)",(German), by Norbert Barth, Würzburg 2008, http://www.opus-bayern.de/uni-wuerzburg/volltexte/2008/2789/pdf/indiabookhouse.pdf
External links
- The official Amar Chitra Katha website
- The official Amar Chitra Katha Media Pvt. Ltd. site
- Amar Chitra Katha on Cartoon Network India
- Amar Chitra Katha in Apple iTunes Store
- Amar Chitra Katha in Apple iBooks Store
- Video Birbal the Wise