http://sanskritessays.blogspot.in/2011/05/blog-post.html|?m=1 Chandamama From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses of "Chandamama", see Chandamama (disambiguation).

Chandamama Editor Prashant Mulekar Categories children Frequency monthly First issue 1947 Company Geodesic Information Systems Limited Country India Language Sanskrit, Assamese, Hindi, Oriya, English, Kannada, Telugu, Mara thi (as 'Chandoba') and Tamil Website www.chandamama.com Chandamama is a classic Indian monthly magazine for children, famous for its ill ustrations. It also published long-running mythological/magical stories that ran for years. Originally, Chandamama" was started in Telugu by A. Chakrapani, note d Telugu Film Director and Writer.[1] It was edited by Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao , a very close friend of Chakrapani and a literary collossus in Telugu Literatur e, who edited it for 28 years, till his death in August 1980. Contents [hide] 1 The Magazine 2 Unique style of storytelling 3 History 4 Ownership 5 Chandamama in the 21st Century 6 References 7 External links The Magazine[edit source | editbeta] The main features of Indian Mythology was completely written by him. Kutumbarao also developed the magazine by encouraging young writers in Telugu and adapted t hem to suit the Telugu written style that he made so popular in Andhra and the T elugu speaking people for decades. Some of the stories and the folklore features were written by Dasari Subrahmanyam, who made the serials like Patala Durgam, e tc, also very popular It was revamped in November 2008 and has since gone contemporary in terms of lan guage, presentation, artwork, and content. While it continues to carry old favou rites like Vikram-Betal and mythological tales, there have been several new addi tions including contemporary stories, adventure serials, sports, technology, new s pages, etc. Considering the new trends in children's literature and the emergi ng importance given to academic study and analysis of the same, Chandamama has s triven to keep its editorial policies in line with the times. As the oldest bran d in the field, Chandamama has taken up the responsibility of delivering enterta ining, sensitive, and educational literature for its young readers. Chandamama is published in 13 languages (including English), and has a readershi p of about 200,000.[2] Unique style of storytelling[edit source | editbeta] The magazine started the unique trend of telling a story, almost always bound by a common thread of moral values, with a grandparents' style of storytelling in the most flexible third-person narrative mode, on print. The stories published have been drawn from numerous historical and modern texts in India, as well as from other countries. Mythology, epics, fables, parables an d even useful hearsay were spun suitably to feed the impressionable minds so tha t they seek the right direction in life, even while entertaining them thoroughly . In fact Chandamama continues to be the perfect example for the now popular ter m 'edutainment' ! The stories embedded in the never-ending story of King Vikramditya and Vetala (Va

mpire), an adaptation of an ancient Sanskrit work Baital Pachisi, brought wide r epute to this magazine, and were also featured in popular TV serials. In each is sue, the Vetala, in order to prevent him fulfill a vow, poses a typical catch-22 question to king Vikramditya, involving a moral dilemma. The wise king answers c orrectly, and is thus defeated by the Vetala, forcing the king do it all over ag ain, and again. History[edit source | editbeta] The first edition of Chandamama was released in July, 1947. The founder editor o f the magazine was B.Nagi Reddy who later became a leading film producer in Sout h India. Chakrapani, a friend of Nagi Reddy, was the force behind magazine, and his vision, perception and understanding of the target readership brought name a nd 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. M arathi (as Chandoba) and Malayalam (as Ambili Ammavan) editions appeared in Apri l 1952 followed by Gujarati in 1954, English in 1955, Oriya (as Jahnamamu) and S indhi in 1956, Bengali in August 1972, Punjabi in 1975, Assamese in 1976, Sinhal a in 1978, Sanskrit in April 1984 and Santali in 2004. The Punjabi, Sindhi and S inhala editions were published only for a short period. No English editions were published from October 1957 to June 1970. The magazine ceased publication in 19 98, owing to labour disputes. However, the magazine relaunched a year later and continues to be published to this day. It is available in 12 Indian languages an d English. For many decades, Chandamama's illustrators defined the look of the magazine. Th ey 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 Kesav a; M. Gokhale; and K. C. Sivasankaran, alias Sankar, who joined Chandamama in th e year 1951, and continues to draw even now in 2011, in an unbroken association of 6 decades! Later artists such as Shakthi Dass; M. K. Basha, who signed as Raz i; Gandhi Ayya, aka Gandhi; and P. Mahesh (Mahe), also continued the tradition i nto current times.[3] Initially, the covers were printed in four-colours, while the illustrations inside used line drawings. Each page of Chandamama has an illu stration, although in the strict sense of the term, Chandamama is not a comic bo ok, with the exception of the Chitra-katha column. Ownership[edit source | editbeta] The magazine has been in family hands since foundation, and the current publishe r, B Viswanatha Reddy, continues the tradition after taking over the affairs of the magazine from his father. In 1999, the company was floated as a public limit ed organization, with Morgan Stanley taking a sizable stake in the company. The current editor is Prashant Mulekar of Geodesic. In August 2006, it was reported[2][4] that Disney was set to buy a stake in Chan damama. In 2007, Chandamama was acquired[5] by technology company Geodesic Infor mation Systems Chandamama in the 21st Century[edit source | editbeta] With the acquisition by a technology company, Chandamama has announced[6] that i t 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. In late 2007, Chandamama released its revamped internet presence (now more logic ally found at chandamama.com, a domain-name it acquired after many years) to bet ter cater to readers who demand information and content beyond the printed publi cation. It has also tied up with satellite radio service provider Worldspace to bring the Indian story telling tradition live through radio.[7] In July 2008, the publication launched its online portal in Hindi, Tamil and Tel ugu apart from English. It declared that all 60 year's publication in all Indian languages would be put online soon.,[8][9]