Lifting the Mountain: Debating the Place of Science and Faith in the Creation of a Krishna Comic Book: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The study of media, religion, and culture has only recently emerged as a burgeoning field of inquiry as scholars begin to recognize the
impact that the various media technologies can have on religious traditions. Yet a growing number of studies of media and religion in the South Asian context are now beginning to demonstrate how popular media can transform religious beliefs, symbols, narratives, and practices; to consider the history that media have had in the consolidation of multiple Hindu traditions into one pan-Indian religion; and to theorize the impact of popular media upon ongoing debates about religious, gendered, and national identities.1 In this article, I consider how the leading Indian comic book series, Amar Chitra Katha, charts changing religious beliefs. From 2001 to 2002, I
conducted ethnographic research with the producers, retailers, and consumers of Amar Chitra Katha comic books. The office of India Book House, the publishing company of the popular comic book series, is located on the fifth floor of an office building in central Bombay, and it is there that I first met Anant Pai, a science-educated man from an orthodox Vaishnava family who founded this series, and learned of the many debates that occurred in the production and consumption of these comic books. I will focus here on the debate surrounding the production of one comic book in particular, the Krishna issue, as it provides an interesting case study of the tension that can exist between science-based and faith-based systems of knowledge in modern India.