Ambulimama Stories In Tamil

[Lola Bergo]

Apart from the Vethal stories, Ambulimama added every month a new story for decades. At the end of the story, there would be a question that would encourage the child to think for itself, developing Dharmic-critical thinking and spiritual values.

These illustrations were always in colour. Apart from the panels, there was also a one full-page illustration, which was quite marvellous. Often children turned the pages to that last section (or penultimate section) to see the full-page illustration.

Here are two such full-page illustrations: In one, Hanuman shows the form in which he leapt over the ocean to meet his brother Bheem. In another, all the gods and goddesses are dancing in joy, and their vahanas also join in the blissful dance.

Ambulimama ceased to be, and that immense cultural tragedy that befell the nation for generations of children, went almost unnoticed not to mention, not mourned. The colossal nonchalance which the present generation exhibited at the loss of Ambulimama shall always remain a dark spot when history of Hindu culture is written. Even now it is not too late to revive it.

Though the target audience for his illustrations were children, he nurtured Indian culture in such a way that those who grew up reading the series he illustrated for, until today respect, understand and defend the culture and spirituality of Mother India. But for his illustrations, which existed for more than half a century, children would have been poorer in their inner resources, and India would have suffered even more cultural illiteracy.

Sankar is the artist behind the signature painting of the Vikram and Vetala series, -showing the sword-wielding King Vikram carrying the corpse on his shoulder through a cremation ground- which is often
synonymously remembered with the stories.

He was the only surviving member of the original Chandamama design team. Born in a small village near Erode, Sankar shifted to the city with his younger brother to study in a corporation school when he was 10.

Chandamama was a classic Indian monthly magazine for children, famous for its illustrations. It also published long-running mythological/magical stories that ran for years. Originally, "Chandamama" was started in Telugu by Chakrapani and Nagi Reddi, who later became noted Telugu film producers. It was edited by Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao, a very close friend of Chakrapani and a literary colossus in Telugu literature, who edited it for 28 years, till his death in August 1980.

In 2007, Chandamama was bought by Geodesic, a Mumbai-based software services provider company. They planned to take the then 60-year-old magazine into the digital era. However, the magazine is currently defunct as Geodesic itself was found defaulting on outstanding loans and was ordered to be wound up by the Mumbai High Court.[1]

As of July 2016, the current status of the magazine is unknown - as the parent company Geodesic is under the liquidation process and the Chandamama brand and IP is expected to be sold off in due course. The official website of the magazine was allowed to expire and drop by the magazine owners and the current website is not associated with the Chandamama magazine.

The main features of Indian Mythology were completely written by Kutumbarao, who also developed the magazine by encouraging young writers in Telugu and adapted them to suit the Telugu written style that he made so popular in Andhra and the Telugu speaking people for decades. Some of the stories and the folklore features were written by Dasari Subrahmanyam, who made serials like Patala Durgam, etc. also very popular.

It was revamped in November 2008 and had gone contemporary in terms of language, presentation, artwork, and content. While it continued to carry old favourites like Vetala Panchavimshati and mythological tales, there were several new additions including contemporary stories, adventure serials, sports, technology, news pages, etc. Considering the new trends in children's literature and the emerging importance given to academic study and analysis of the same, Chandamama had striven to keep its editorial policies in line with the times. As the oldest brand in the field, Chandamama had taken up the responsibility of delivering entertaining, sensitive, and educational literature for its young readers.

The stories published have been drawn from numerous historical and modern texts in India, as well as from other countries. Mythology, epics, fables, parables and even useful hearsay were spun suitably to feed the impressionable minds so that they seek the right direction in life, even while entertaining them thoroughly.

The stories embedded in the never-ending story of King Vikramāditya and Vetala (Vampire), an adaptation of an ancient Sanskrit work Baital Pachisi, brought wide repute to this magazine, and were also featured in popular TV serials. In each issue, the Vetala, in order to prevent him fulfill a vow, poses a typical catch-22 question to king Vikramāditya, involving a moral dilemma. The wise king answers correctly, and is thus defeated by the Vetala, forcing the king do it all over again and again.

The first edition of Chandamama was released in July, 1947. The founder editor of the magazine was Chakrapani. It was printed and published by Nagi Reddi who later became a leading film producer in South India. Chakrapani, a friend of Nagi Reddy, was the force behind magazine, and his vision, perception and understanding of the target readership brought name and fame to the magazine.

Chandamama was first published in Telugu and Tamil (as Ambulimama) in July 1947. Kannada edition first appeared in July 1949 followed by Hindi in August 1949. Marathi (as Chandoba) and Malayalam (as Ambili Ammavan) editions appeared in April 1952 followed by Gujarati in 1954, English in 1955, Odia (as Jahnamamu)[3] and Sindhi in 1956, Bengali (as Chadmama) in July 1972, Punjabi in 1975, Assamese in 1976, Sinhala in 1978, Sanskrit in April 1984 and Santali in 2004. The Punjabi, Sindhi and Sinhala editions were published only for a short period. No English editions were published from October 1957 to June 1970. The magazine ceased publication in 1998, owing to labour disputes. However, the magazine relaunched a year later. It was available in 12 Indian languages and English.

For many decades, Chandamama's illustrators defined the look of the magazine. They included such names as M. T. V. Acharya, T. Veera Raghavan, who signed his work as Chithra; Vaddadi Papaiah, who signed as Vapa; Kesava Rao who signed as Kesava; M. Gokhale; and K. C. Sivasankaran, alias Sankar, who joined Chandamama in the year 1951. Later artists such as Shakthi Dass; M. K. Basha, who signed as Razi; Gandhi Ayya, aka Gandhi; and P. Mahesh (Mahe), also continued the tradition into current times.[4] Initially, the covers were printed in four-colours, while the illustrations inside used line drawings. Each page of Chandamama had an illustration, although in the strict sense of the term, Chandamama is not a comic book, with the exception of the Chitra-katha column.

The magazine has been in family hands since foundation, and the current publisher, B Viswanatha Reddy, continued the tradition after taking over the affairs of the magazine from his father. In 1999, the company was floated as a public limited organization, with Morgan Stanley taking a sizable stake in the company.

With the acquisition by a technology company, Chandamama has announced that it will digitize and make available much of its content via digital libraries and on the web. In addition, Chandamama Multimedia CDs have also been published.[6]

In late 2007, Chandamama released its revamped internet presence to better cater to readers who demand information and content beyond the printed publication. It has also tied up with satellite radio service provider Worldspace to bring the Indian storytelling tradition live through radio.[7]

Chandamama has stopped publishing in all languages from March 2013, without issuing any press release and without giving any notifications or refund to subscribers. A message was given on the official Facebook page of the magazine on 30 May 2013 saying that they could not publish issues from March 2013 because of technical problems, and the magazine would restart publishing from July 2013 onwards. However, the official website of the magazine also went down in July 2013, saying "We are currently doing some enhancement and upgrades to the website. We will be back soon."

In July 2016, the original website of the magazine was allowed to expire by the parent company and it was dropped. Currently, the website is no longer associated with the Chandamama magazine or the parent company.

In Aug 2017, website Chandamama.in Link was started to preserve the Chandamama culture for future generations. This website has more than 10 languages and growing with the community support. The website provides access to old magazines for free of cost.

To name a few of the most popular children magazines from that genre, would be: Tinkle, Balamitra, Gokulam, Champak, Poonthalir, and Ratnabala, which all had a unique set of followers and readers group.

Each of them also excelled in a specific way in which they originate their stories from, which was experienced by young and adult, during a period when what we see in TV media were controlled by state-owned TV channels, and there were not much other things to divert upon.

Even though, they could not match up to the stardom and world-fame which DC & Marvel garnered with their releases, they enjoyed a fan-fare of its own for decades, eventually falling out of reckoning as their younger readers grew, and India witnessed the growth and varieties of other Sports and TV Media. Now only handful of them are still in publication, having adopted to live with a small number of readership and changing their content to match the modern expectations.

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