Author: Shefali Vaidya
Publication: Facebook.com
Date: September 2, 2016
URL:   https://www.facebook.com/shefv/posts/10155240606367796

On the topic of Indian history...

I recently went on a guided tour to the Verul caves with Indology expert Udayan Indurkar. We were a group of 40 people. Very few of us knew anything about the history of the world-famous Kailas cave, the world's largest, most exquisite temple carved top down from an entire mountain.

When I returned home, I was talking about the trip to my kids. My son said, 'yeah, it was built during the reign of King Krishna 1 of the Rashtrakuta dynasty, right?'

I was amazed that he could recollect such details. Asked him which book he read it in?

'Amar Chitra Katha Mamma, don't you remember, you bought it for me?' He replied proudly.

Intrigued, I quizzed him about ancient Indian history. He had retained enough info about the Pallavas, Pandyas, Cholas, Vijayanagara Empire, Ashok, Buddha and Shivaji to make me proud.

The source of his information?

Largely Amar Chitra Katha and the interactions he had had with me.

The Amar Chitra Katha Studio has done tremendous work in popularising Indian history and making it accessible to entire generations of Indians.

We owe a lot of gratitude to Anant Pai and his chief editor and researcher, Kamala Chandrakanth for ACK.