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", 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!)
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.
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
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tyler Neill <tyler.g.neill@gmail.com>
To: indology@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:
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