HARISHCHANDRA (577) HINDI

Amar Chitra Katha #17

by Anant Pai

Harischandra

Genres: Comics, Mythology, Hinduism, Indian Literature, Nonfiction, History, Graphic Novels Comics

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Anant Pai popularly known as Uncle Pai, was an Indian educationalist and creator of Indian comics, in particular the Amar Chitra Katha series in 1967, along with the India Book House publishers, and which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters. In 1980, he launched Tinkle, a children's anthology, which was started under Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, that lasted till 1998, with him as the Managing Director.

Today, Amar Chitra Katha sells about three million comic books a year, in English and more than 20 Indian languages, and has sold about 100 million copies since it inception in 1967 by Anant Pai, and in 2007 was taken over by ACK Media.

Reviews

[Ashish Iyer]

Another gem from Amar Chitra Katha.

[Shinjini]

Amazing! Absolutely amazing story that made me cry and smile, sometimes even at the same time.

Raja Harishchandra is the man who upheld the truth no matter what happened to him. He made a promise to Sage Vishwamitra and the lengths to which he had to go to keep his promise, sacrificing his kingdom, his family, himself, is truly impressive. It brought tears to my eyes, reading about how he gave up everything just so his promise would not break. His wife also supported his efforts, even when her own dignity and her child's future was at stake.

Ultimately, the Raja was applauded for his immense sacrifices and declared The Truthful King.

I loved this story too much and I'm going to be looking out for more books featuring this character. So good.

[Uditi Chibber]

'Harischandra' is a quick read comic. It started off good but turned pretty tragic halfway through the comic. He was a king of Ayodhya known for possessing rare but incredible quality of sticking to truthfulness. No matter how many obstacles he had to go through with his family, he did not give up truthfulness. From giving up his kingdom to working for a chandala, he still kept his truthfulness to himself. Gandhiji 's own experiments with truth had been inspired from Harishchandra. King Harishchandra was from Treta Era. There are four eras in Hinduism. They are Krita ( or Satya) Era, Treta Era, Dvapara Era and Kali Era. He was a highly moralistic, faithful and humble king. His wife was Shaivya . They had a son named Rohitashva. The brief synopsis is the king had accidentally disrupted sage Vishwamitra 's meditation and in order to avoid the sage's curse, the king had promised to give anything to the sage. So fulfilling the sage's promise, he and his family had suffered immensely. If you're looking for a comic featuring aspects like handling the complex situation maturely and honestly, then this one is for you.

[Naga Vishnu Kanth]

Great stories by ACK comics as always

Hail the truth. We were always told from childhood about Harischandra's truth stories.. it was good to read this short story to understand why that is the case

[Karthika]

Tearful

[Swetha G]

Must read

Never knew he ruled ayodhya.. it is hard to live like him but we can atleast try to be honest most of the time

[Akshay Kamath]

Terrific story of truthfulness!

Issue #7 of ACK series.
A grappling story of how Harischandra firmly stays on the path of truth despite the worst of situations. Must read!

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

Motivating

[Nidhi Chopra]

Sadly, king made his wife and son suffer. What if God choose not to come?

[Saurabh]

Satyamev Jayate

Few men do everything for their words. Brilliant story of one such man who was ready to sacrifice everything for his words.

[KK]

The one person from mythology I love so much is Satya Harischandra. What an inspiring personality and his commitment and steadfast devotion to truth moved me deeply. Must read

[Anindita Vishwanath]

This is a difficult book because when I read it, I had assumptions and then I was explained on what had happened.

[Manu Datta]

A very interesting story and as usual the illustrations and the story telling of Amar Chitra Katha is impeccable.