Amar Chitra Katha ('Immortal Captivating (or Picture) Stories') 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 Indian 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 17 September 2008, a new website by ACK-media was launched.

Print versions of the Mahabharata are available on Flipkart in India and Amazon in the US. Flipkart has: Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari is the cheapest, while the 12-volume Mahabharata by Kisari Mohan Ganguli is the most comprehensive. For kids, Amar Chitra Katha's 3-volume Mahabharata comic.

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 Doordarshan 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 led to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently. 'They brought in Anant Pai' says Ananthram. 'And he built a wonderful team and a great brand.' 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 epics 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 (e.g. 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, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil 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. Amar Chitra Katha has evolved over times.

It has forayed into the digital world by launching its official digital store app across platforms — Windows 8, iOS and Android. Dubbed as ACK Comics, the store offers more than 300 titles.

The free app gives readers access to Amar Chitra Katha comics, ranging from its archive but also including the latest books that Amar Chitra Katha publishes, with both free and paid comics. The digital comics can be read in the app in flip-book mode as well as panel-by-panel mode, which is convenient for smaller devices.

Users can download and read their comics on multiple devices using a single user account. Criticism of the Amar Chitra Katha comics has largely revolved around two central issues: the depiction of women and the portrayal of minorites, according to author Aruna Rao. The female characters have been criticised as stereotypical, often shown to be self-sacrificing and passive in comparison to the men. Practices of sati and jauhar have been depicted without appropriate contextualisation or comment. The Muslim heroes are invariably those who accommodated Hinduism in their belief systems, while Orthodox Muslims are presented as villains. The creators have also been criticised for projecting the superiority of Brahminical or upper-caste Hindu culture over other viewpoints, presenting Indian caste hierarchies uncritically. However, Aruna Rao points out that India Book House responded to some of the criticism about the depiction of women and minorities, and attempted to make amends by adopting a broader perspective.

The stories have often been criticised as distorted depictions of history, with characters being seen simplistically as 'good' and 'bad' – brave Hindu kings and Muslim 'outsiders', and so on. Also, the aim is often to create a hagiography and a lesson in character-building at the expense of authenticity and historical truth. Another criticism is that comic books, by their very nature, do not reflect the richness and complexity of the oral tradition of Indian mythology in which multiple versions of a story can co-exist simultaneously. One mainstream version is privileged over regional and folk versions, which the younger audience then comes to accept as the only 'truthful' version. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •.

Mahabharata (vol I of III), cover art by Ramesh Umrotkar Publication information Amar Chitra Katha Schedule Alternative Title Schedule Format Genre Mythology Publication date 1985 - 89 No. Of issues 42 Creative team Written by Kamala Chandrakanth • TMP Nedungadi • Subba Rao • Yagya Sharma • Lopamudra • Mihir Lal Mitra • Sumona Roy • Mohan Swaminathan • Shubha Kandhekar • Margie Sastry Artist(s) Dilip Kadam Editor(s) Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Mahabharata (also known as 's Mahabharata ) is a comic adaptation of the.

The 42-issue best-selling series by, was illustrated by Dilip Kadam. The team of script writers (who took turns to complete the 42 issues) included Kamala Chandrakanth, TMP Nedungadi, Subba Rao, Yagya Sharma, Lopamudra, Mihir Lal Mitra, Sumona Roy, Mohan Swaminathan, Shubha Kandhekar and Margie Sastry.

The Mahabharata is often regarded as one of the most popular titles in the history of Amar Chitra Katha. It is also the longest series (42 issue run on an alternative title schedule; from 329-441 [1985-89] in over more than 1300 pages) to have been produced by the ACK. The series was originally planned for 60 albums, but it was later cut short to 42.

Contents • • • • • • Concept and creation [ ] Amar Chitra Katha had a strong commitment to the Mahabharata from the very beginning. Many of its titles were from based on particular events or characters from the Mahabharata. In March 1985, the new project began, 'in response to a persistent demand from our readers for a comprehensive account of the epic.' The ambitious series by was initially decided as a 60 volume project, with one issue in every fortnight.

However, in 1988, Amar Chitra Katha issued only one issue a month, so that Mahabharata numbers came out only in every two months. The Mahabharata comics was based on, • A text with translation by Pundit Ramnarayan Dutt Shastri Pandey (, ) • A verse version by (SPCS, ) • Pratap Chandra Roy's English prose version (, ) • Pune critical edition (, ) Structure [ ] The comics does not include the (a supplement to the Mahabharata), the romance of, the legend of and the abbreviated version of the. It also omits the character and the first issue ('Veda Vyasa') begins with sage Vyasa acquiring the elephant god as his scribe and starting the dictation.

It soon moves on to narrating the epic to. This latter pair persist till the last panel of the series, appearing from time to time in panels colored differently. The comics also included various footnotes explaining the meaning Sanskrit terms, and the few issues also consisted a pronunciation guide and glossary. Drivers Pcchips M925 Xp there. Issues usually start with a page containing a summary of the last few issues, and in the backdrop illustrations of the Gita setting, with kneeling before in the battlefield. Influences and conflicts [ ] Amar Chitra Katha series on Mahabarata (1985–89) coincided with 's famous television drama series (1988–90). Although, some fans took great pleasure in encountering Mahabharata in both mediums, the television series spelled big trouble for the comic book series. Crack Program Mitra Usaha Plus there.

Amar Chitra Katha and the state-run television channel () competed for the same audience. It is widely accepted that visual and narrative 'homogenization' occurs between the ACK'S Mahabharata and Baldev Raj Chopra's Mahabharat. Television producers have repeatedly turned to the Amar Chitra Katha series as reference material for costume design, set production, and subject matter. 'When the Mahabharat television series was made, I had friend who was a cameraman at the set. And he told me that they often brought the ACK Mahabharata series onto the set and used it as reference material-for dress, the building, and also for the episodes, the content. It is Kamala Chandrakant who deserves credit for this. She was thorough and very, very careful with regards to authenticity.'

— Yagya Sharma, ACK author, on Mahabharata comics The advertisements of the comic series contained the exhortation 'Read it to enjoy your Sunday viewing [of the BR Chopra's Mahabharat]!' It seems possible that the comic series was hastened to 42 issues from 60 to take advantage of the television series. Collected formats [ ] • The late 1980s saw the first of the collected format of the Mahabharata with a 7 volume 'Library Edition'. • A 14 volume special edition was published in the late 1990s. • A hard-bounded 3 volume edition in 1998 (reprinted in late 2007, 2012) References [ ].