ACK-056, 057 & 058-059-060: Jataka Tales - The Giant And The Dwarf, The Priceless Jem & Bumper Issue 30- The Rightful King and other stories

Post ACK-046: Gandhari is updated. First two pages are available now.
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Jataka Tales, like the tales of panchatantra are very old and have a long tradition of being passed on from generation to generation serving as source for moral behaviour for humans in general. These stories are stories of wisdom, and morals written around 300 B.C in a language called PALI, which were later translated and distributed to people across the world. These stories are mainly about past incarnations of Buddha, and are meant to teach the values of self-sacrifice, honesty, morality and other didactic values to a common person. They are a total of 547 in number. They really make interesting reading just like the counterparts in Panchatantra.

Here are some Jataka Tales.

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ACK #246 (#575) The Giant And The Dwarf - A Jataka Tale

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ACK #362 (#672) The Priceless Jem - A Jataka Tale






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Bumper Issue 30 - Jataka Tales - The Rightful King and other stories

It contains
#195 (#553) Jataka Tales - Jackal Stories
#264 (#617) Jataka Tales - The Hidden Treasure
#426 (#614) Jataka Tales - True Friends

Download Part 1 (HQ) (50 MB)
Download Part 2 (HQ) (50 MB)
Download Part 3 (HQ) (39.82 MB)

Download hjsplit to join HQ files.

Download Part 1 (8.98 MB)
Download Part 2 (7.78 MB)
Download Part 3 (7.54 MB)

These are Apoorva's Contributions. All credits & thanks go to him.
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P.S. ACKs are one of my favorites. But one thing is above my understanding: the numbering system of ACK. Same comics is printing with different numbers and different Bumper issue as same. Just take a look at this & earlier posted bumper issue, both are #30.

ACK-055: Panchatantra - The Brahmin & the Goat

My thanks to all persons who are participating in polling. Trend is showing that most of friends wish to read Jataka, Panchatantra, others similar tales first. OK.
I promised to be more active this year. I can inform you today, 30+ ACK are coming with interval of 1-2 days.

You have opportunity to choose next posts.

Here is leader. Enjoy.

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How the tales of the Panchatantra came to be told is itself an interesting story (read earlier post). The etymology of term ‘Panchatantra’ suggests that it is a combination of two words, ‘Pancha’ (five) and ‘Tantra’ (practice/ principle). So, the five principles or practices illustrated by Panchatantra are ‘Mitra Bhedha’ (Loss of Friends), ‘Mitra Laabha’ (Gaining Friends), ‘Suhrudbheda’ (Causing discord between Friends), ‘Vigraha’ (Separation) and ‘Sandhi’ (Union). Here are provided some of the popular tales from Panchatantra.
The study of the theories of philosophy, psychology and statecraft became engrossing when Vishnu Sharma drove the moral home through the mouths of talking animals and their escapades.
One unique feature of the tales is that most of the characters are animals; another, the tales form a chain of stories; a third, each of the tales has a distinct moral; and yet another, the tales have different levels of appeal.
The Panchatantra is the best guide to enroot moral values in children since its each tale has a moral lesson in its end. The morals which the Panchatantra seeks to teach continue to be relevant to this day and the stories themselves have not lost their novelty even two thousand years after they were first told.

Read Panchtantra stories online.

Download Comics (HQ) (55.66 MB) - ACK # 138 (562)

Download Comics ( 9.65 MB) - ACK # 138 (562)

This is contributed by Apoorva Chandar. His many contributions are coming soon.

ACK-050, 051 & 052-053-054: Cinderella; Raman the matchless wit & Bumper Issue 30- Buddhist Legends

Update:

1. 8th January 2009: Original scans of 2 ACK added (without any change).

2. 6th January post ACK-007: Hindi version Vinod Priy Birbal is added.

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An out of print ACK (#2)

Cinderella - one of the most popular fairy tale of all times.

A Cinderella Story Fairy tales evolve over time as they are told from generation to generation. Whether they are passed on by word of mouth or through print. The Greek historian Strabo (Geographica Book 17, 1.33) recorded in the 1st century BC the tale of the Greco-Egyptian girl Rhodopis, which is considered the oldest known version of the story. There are more than 3,000 stories that folklorists ID as "Cinderella variants" worldwide; almost every culture, every nation, has some - native-borrowings by indigenous storytellers who use some of the themes, and some of them more indigenous - with different cultural values embodied.

Oral tradition came to an end when printing presses appeared and scholars began writing down the old stories. Among the earliest of the fairy-tale collectors was a French official, Charles Perrault, born in 1628. He chose the architects for two of the world's most famous buildings, Versailles and the Louvre. For fun, he met with a group of aristocratic women and their children to swap fairy tales. And in 1697 he published a collection of eight fairy tales called Stories, or Tales from Past Times, with Morals, also known as Tales of Mother Goose.

Most modern retellings of "Cinderella" are based on Perrault's version, and the illustrations show characters dressed in the fashions of his time.

No matter what the differences, they all have one thing at common in the heart. The moral. With Cinderella, one learns that despite being unappreciated and condemned to serving others, as long as you are kind natured and a truly good person, your dreams will come true. Cinderella is one of the most well known and popular fairy tales. Why this is, is a little unclear. Perhaps it is because her story is so straight forward and simple. As with the moral her tale presents; Good things come to good people. Cinderella is forced to become a virtual servant in her own home. Yet she doesn’t complain and does the work diligently. In the end, her loving qualities win over the heart of the Prince and her beauty shines through not only from the outside, but her inner beauty as well. Throughout time, the story of Cinderella has changed very little.

Detail evolution history of this story is available at Wikipedia.

Download Comics (Hindi) (15.24 MB)

List of some variations on the Cinderella story

Read various versions of Cinderella:

Various versions (online)

Online & download link (Microsoft reader)

Cinderella by the Grimm Brothers

BBC - CBeebies Audio- vedio (online)

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#226 (#581) - Raman Matchless Wit

Garlapati Tenali Ramakrishna (popularly known as Tenali Raman, Tenali Rama, Ramalingudu and Vikata Kavi) is known as the Birbal of the South.
Tenali Raman was a court-poet & among the eight wise men in King Krishna Deva Raya’s court. Krishna Deva Raya was one of the most famous and successful ruler of Vijaynagar and he ruled between 1509 and 1529, much before even Babar established the Mughal Dynasty. He was the king’s favorite and always managed to triumph over with his wit and intelligence.

Read more about at Raman:
1. Kathavarta
2. funonthenet
3. Wikipedia

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Watch

1. Tenali Rama and the Theieves (English)



2. Tenali Raman - Anitmated Humor Stories Here

3. Small Story Tenali Raman 1 (Hindi) Here
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Bumper Issue 30- Buddhist Legends

It contains

1. #218 (#574) Jataka Tales - The Magic Chant (8.92 MB)

2. #118 (#664) King Kusha - A Buddhist Tale (10.48 MB)

3. #224 (#619) Jataka Tales - Nandi Vishala (10.85 MB)

or

Download Comics (original scan) (17.8 MB)

These are Ajay's contributions. All thanks & credits go to him.

ACK-022 & 023:The Inimitable Birbal; Ranadhira

Birbal (1528-1583) is surely one of the most popular figures in Indian history equally regarded by adults and children. Birbal's duties in Akbar's court were mostly administrative and military but he was a very close friend of Akbar too, because Akbar loved his wisdom, wit, and subtle humor. He was a minister in the administration (Grand Vizier or Wazīr-e Azam) of Mogul Emperor Akbar and one of the members of inner council of nine advisors, known as the navaratna, a Sanskrit word meaning nine jewels. Among these nine jewels, five people were more famous - Tansen, Todarmal, Abul Fazal, Maan Singh and Birbal.

1. Tansen for his singing art,

2. Dasvant - a great painter

3. King Todarmal was a financial wizard,

4. Abdu us-Samad - a brilliant calligrapher and designer of Imperil coins

5. Abul Fazal was a great historian whose brother

6. Faizi was a great poet,

7. Mir Fareh-ullah Shirazi - financier, philosopher, physician and astronomer,

8. King Maan Singh for his chivalry, and

9. Birbal for his valuable advice.

It is believed that he was a son of poor Brahmin of Trivikrampur (now known as Tikavanpur) on the banks of River Yamuna. Another version is born in the village Ghoghara of Sihawal tehsil in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh. Raja Birbal died in the battle of Malandari Pass, attempting to quell unrest amongst Afghan or Pashtun tribes in Northwest India. Akbar was said to have mourned for a long time on hearing the news. The death was said to be caused by treachery, not military defeat.

The exchanges between Akbar and Birbal have been recorded in many volumes. Many of these have become folk stories in Indian tradition. He was a poet and an author too. Birbal's collection of poetry published under the pen name "Brahm" are preserved in Bharatpur Museum, Rajsthan, India.

Many courtiers were jealous with Birbal and often plotted for his downfall. There are many stories found on this issue too. There are a couple of other stories too which are of the same time and type and are as interesting as Birbal's ones.

Books on Akbar and Birbal

There are many books published about them, some of them are listed here.

1. Sawhney, Clifford. 50 Wittiest Tales of Birbal. Delhi: Pustak Mahal. [ISBN: 81-7806-050-7].

2. Moseley, James. The Ninth Jewel of the Mughal Crown. Pasadena, CA, Summerwind Marketing. 2001. (Children Books) [ISBN: 0970444710]

3. Sarin, Amita. Akbar and Birbal. Delhi: Penguin. 2005. [ISBN: 0-14-333494-8]

4. Matba Jauhar-e-hind. Lata'if-e-Akbar - Hissah Pahli: Birbal Namah. Delhi: Mahanarayan. 1888. (In Urdu language).

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It's a contribution by an anonymous friend,  all credits and thanks go to him.

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An out of print ACK

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It's a contribution by "Ajnaabi", all credits & thanks go to him.

ACK-007:Birbal The Witty

Update (6th Jan 2009): Hindi version added.

Its again a contribution from Frank,thanks to him.Friends there is only one way to keep this blog alive and that is in form of contributions as to run two blogs simultaneously is a very difficult job for a single person.
So persons having scans of ACK are requested to contribute them and i will be posting them here or alternatively one can request TPH to allow him/her administrative rights so that he/she can post to the blog directly.

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Download Comic (Hindi)

"Hindi version was first posted at Ashish Pathak's Comic World by Ashish. He will contribute more ACK scans in future too. Thanks Ashish".- PBC (6th Jan, 2009)