Disclaimer: The designers mentioned in each story are actual designers; however, the stories do represent their opinions in any way whatsoever. While the pictures are of their actual work, the collections originally did not have any relation to the stories that I chose for this storybook.
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Storybook Inspiration
I found these characters from the Amar Chitra Katha comic books. For the purpose of this storybook, I tried to stay true to the original stories letting the garments speak for the writing. I did research into all the different designers and narrowed down to my favorite three using specific criteria. One of my leading criteria for choosing the designers is that there was a working official website with a variety of collections for me to browse through. Next, I tried to gauge the overall style of the collections and determine the best fit character out of all the ones I had on my list. My list of characters were important female figures because that was the overarching theme of my stories. I categorized all the characters as a heroine, a goddess, or an asura. After reading many comic book stories, I chose my favorite story from each category: Ulupi, the asura, Noor Jahan, the heroine, and Ganga, the goddess. I tried to build a connection between each “designer” and each character inspiration.
A winner will be decided by the “judges”, but I am interested to know readers’ preferences as well. There will be a poll on my blog to tally up votes for favorite collection.
Stay tuned for results.
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Ulupi: The Asura Princess
Ulupi’s story ties into the Mahabharata world as she is one of the wives of Arjuna, the famed Pandava hero of the epic. I was excited to find this character because I never knew about asura princesses. Prior to doing more research, I assumed that all asuras were horrible, unpleasant creatures. I found Ulupi’s story to be inspiring and amazing, so I did my best to summarize the overall story in the collection. The comic book did a great job of illustrating all the events in her life.
Since I only chose to showcase five different important moments in Ulupi’s life, I had to leave out several other major parts of her story which can be found in the comic book or online sources. For example, I had to leave out the fact that Ulupi and one of Arjuna’s other wives were close friends. In fact, this other wife, named Chitrangada, helped Ulupi raise Babruvahan. I left this character out because the collection specifically focuses on Ulupi; therefore, I did not want the spotlight to fall on other major characters such as Arjuna or Chitranganda.
My goal of this story was to build a visual representation of Ulupi for the readers who may not be familiar with her. By tying parts of her story to specific outfits, I wanted to highlight my take on this character’s personality. Overall, I wanted to create a simple connection between a character on paper to a physical representation created by actual, talented designers.
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Noor Jahan: Queen of the Mughals
Noor Jahan’s story in the Amar Chitra Comic book is based off of the real life Nur Jahan of the Mughal Empire. Her fame equates to the fame of Empress Mumtaz Mahal whose husband built the Taj Mahal in her honor. Nur Jahan is famous because of her marriage to the Emperor Jahangir. There are stories about their scandalous love affair which occurred while Nur Jahan’s husband was still alive. Eventually, the couple marry four years after her first husband’s death. Soon after, she implicitly takes over control of the empire. This was a major accomplishment for Nur Jahan who lived in a time where women did not have the opportunity to be leaders.
While Nur Jahan’s history is extensive and amazing, the comic book specifically focuses on her experiences in the Mughal Empire. Her birth story is dramatized for effect, as well as the forbidden love between the couple. Nevertheless, the comic book does an excellent job of showcasing her role as an intelligent leader. I love that this story is based off an actual person. She truly was an iconic figure in history, so it was fun to recreate her in modern times using modern clothing. In fact, creating her story using high fashion looks was simple because I imagine her style to be timeless just as her legacy is. The only difficulty was to narrow down five specific looks to keep in tone with the rules of the challenge. If I could, I would have built a full size collection to capture every bit of her story. Still, the images and the story that I have on the website is a good start to honor her historical importance.
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Ganga: The River Goddess
This collection was my most favorite out of all three because of the character, and the designer is someone I am actually interested in. I had never heard of him before doing research for this project, and I completely adore all his work. Ganga’s story in the Amar Chitra comic book was different from a lot of the other stories I read because her role is important in the lives of various other characters such as King Sagara and all his sons. In addition to the stories from the comic book, I chose to retell a chapter from the Mahabharata where King Shantanu of the Kuru clan is married to the human form of Ganga.
I tried to convey my actual excitement of this story through the excitement of the “designer contestant” and his description of the collection. I faced a similar problem in narrowing down five specific moments and corresponding outfits for this project; however, I knew that I had to tell Ganga’s story because her character was the best fit for the designer whom I enjoy.
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Bibliography
Uloopi: The Naga Princess who Fell in Love with Arjuna Amar Chitra Katha comic vol. 629 Source: ACK Reading Guide
Rajendran, A. (2015, May 09). The Story of Uloopi and Arjuna – Ulupi – the Naga Princess. Retrieved March 10, 2016, from Hindu-Blog.com
Noor Jahan: The Light of the World Amar Chitra Katha comic vol. 701 Source: Bizzell Library Reserves
Nur Jahan (1577 - 1645). (2002). Retrieved March 10, 2016, from Encyclopedia.com
Ganga: The Divine Beauty Amar Chitra Katha comic vol. 515 Source: ACK Reading Guide