Karttikeya

Amar Chitra Katha Stories of Shiva #5

by Anant Pai, Pradip Bhattacharya, Meera Ugra

The Puranas describe Karttikeya, a son of Shiva, as the commander-in-chief of the celestial army. He is also known as Subrahmanya, Skanda, Guha and Kumara. To the Tamil-speaking people he is Murugan. The six-headed, twelve-armed Karttikeya seated on a peacock is the symbol of youth, beauty, valour and supreme wisdom. This Amar Chitra Katha is based on the Tamil version of Skanda-Purana-Samhita.

Genres: Comics, India

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

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

[Anantha Narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Residing in South India, with strong influence from Tamil Nadu I feel very bad that I didnt know some of the stories mentioned in this book. Need to read Skanda Purana after reading this. Good One.

[Pranav · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book we get to know the life history of lord Karthikeya and how he recognised the asuras through their disguises and how he changed Surapadman as his peacock and emblem but it was painful to see the devas working as slaves for the wicked Tarakasura. Some points can be added on why lord Karthikeya had taken this form with six faces.

[kcavinash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord Subramanya

A well written story of Lord Subramanya. Amar chitra katha as usual is great,. The illustrations are excellent. Very nice.

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

nice

[Saurabh Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

|| Jai Ho Skanda Bhagavan Ki ||

Thought I’d obtain more information about Bhagavan Skanda (Karttikeya) as I don’t know much about him other than the fact that he’s Shankara Bhagavan’s offspring and Lord Ganapati’s brother. He isn’t a major deity in terms of worship in Sanatana Dharma at this point, albeit his worship will increase soon as Bharata passes through tough times according to noted Tantra upasaka, Rajasri Nandy ji.
I’ve been reading Amar Chitra Katha comics since I was a little tyke. The sense of wonderment persists even now when reading in my early thirties.
This is a lovely comic on the whole. The recounting of the history of Bhagavan Skanda — from birth to warring with demons to how he obtained his mount is deeply immersive. The illustrations by C.M. Vitankar too are absolutely fabulous.
Recommended reading for sure, gentle readers.

[Aradhya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like with other ACK mythology books, this was a good way to refresh my knowledge. I had read this one as a kid too, so there were frames I remember well.

As for the million dollar question - 'Does it age well?'. Well, not in every frame, no. There are small details that do not age well. For example, on the first page itself, an Asur transforms herself into a 'beautiful woman' and the frames show a dark-skinned woman becoming a light-skinned one. This is not the message we want to pass on to kids. So even if you let a kid/teen read this, please make sure to tell them why this bit was problematic. And since the book involves war and violence as well, it's obviously more suitable for older kids, probably teens.

[sanjaya venugopalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

good simple overview

Good simple overview of kartikeya for children. Would recommend to any one who is curious about this diety. Gang gang

[Zara]

The illustrations are so well done, the first book I picked up voluntarily, memories for sure.
I'm glad to have read such a masterpiece growing up, makes me nostalgic about my childhood.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great to learn the story of Murugan through ACK. I did not know this particular story and it was a fun way to learn about it.

[Saranya ⋆☕︎ ˖ [hibernating] · Rating 2 out of 5]

❤️