[INDOLOGY] four Sanskrit comic books

[Tyler Neill]

Many thanks for everyone's responses on this Sanskrit comic book thread!

To sum up so far:

1) Priya knew of 4 more Amar Chitra Katha in Sanskrit (Kālīdāsa [sic],
Kaṇṇagi, Hakka-Bukka,  and Napoleon Bonaparte 😂) bringing the current
total to 8.

   - I've just noticed that these were uploaded by a user called "Comics in
   Sanskrit <https://archive.org/details/@comics_in_sanskrit/uploads>", who
   also uploaded numerous other Sanskrit-translation items, including two
   Tinkle competition winners ('80 and '84) and various Japanese manga (a
   bunch of Doraemon, plus several not-safe-for-work romances!)


2) Vitus created a handy list on Archive to organize access to the 8 Amar
Chitra Kathas, for starters:
https://archive.org/details/@vangrmr/lists/1/sanskrit-comics (the general
name suggests that other series are can be included, as well). Let's
hopefully continue uncovering and uploading more!

3) Asko pointed out my mistake (thanks!), so now we know that the Ramayana
item is in fact Amar Chitra Katha, as well. Too bad that people digitize
these items without any front matter, leaving us these puzzles to solve.

   - I've now deleted my original upload with the misleading identifier
   ("mystery"), and the new item is at
   https://archive.org/details/amar-chitra-katha-ramayana-sanskrit (*@Vitus*:
   Can you please update your list with this new one?)


4) Madhav and Satyanad remind us that the similar publication Chandamama is
extremely well organized online, in Sanskrit (
https://www.chandamama.in/sanskrit/) and other languages.

5) Joel is interested in creating new comic and/or kids books based on
Sanskrit or other classic texts. (He will almost certainly be interested in
the above "Comics in Sanskrit" items!)

I'm also still curious to hear what others may know about Pandit Gulam
Dastgir, and/or the general history of these Sanskrit Amar Chitra Katha
translations. Perhaps there's an article out there somewhere?

Kind wishes,
Tyler

On Tue, Apr 1, 2025 at 8:03 AM <indology-request at list.indology.info> wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Tyler Neill <tyler.g.neill at gmail.com>
> To: indology at list.indology.info
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:57:02 -0400
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] four Sanskrit comic books
> Dear List,
>
> For over a decade, I've had in my possession two rare Amar Chitra Katha
> comic books in Sanskrit (गंगा and भगवान् बुद्धः), given out by Sadananda
> Das to students in his spoken Sanskrit summer course (Heidelberg, 2013). I
> also discovered another one already digitized online (हनुमान्), plus one
> more Sanskrit comic book (रामायण) that's not Amar Chitra Katha. Two of the
> Amar Chitra Katha items clearly note the role of Pandit Gulam Dastgir, who
> I believe was the translator of all three.
>
> Checking now, I'm surprised to see that no one else has yet made these
> items easily available online, e.g., on Archive. They are great learning
> tools, if nothing else.
>
> To fix this, I've now digitized my two and uploaded all four to Archive:
> https://archive.org/details/amar-chitra-katha-ganga-sanskrit
> https://archive.org/details/amar-chitra-katha-bhagavan-buddhah-sanskrit
> https://archive.org/details/amar-chitra-katha-hanuman-sanskrit
> https://archive.org/details/mystery-comic-book-ramayana-sanskrit
>
> Please enjoy and share widely. Let me know if there are any copyright
> concerns, or if I can improve the metadata to make them easier to find.
> Also, if you have or know of additional Sanskrit comic books of this sort,
> please be in touch, maybe I can continue organizing better access.
>
> Kind wishes,
> Tyler
>
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