Mumbai:
Anant Pai, the creator of a popular comic book series that taught several generations of Indian children the country's history and mythology, died in Mumbai on Thursday. He was 81.
The cause was a heart attack, his family said. He was in the hospital at the time recovering from a fall.
Mr. Pai founded Amar Chitra Katha, or Immortal Illustrated Stories, in 1967 after watching a TV quiz show in which many Indian children could not identify an important character in the Ramayana, one of the two great epics of Hinduism, his wife, Lalita, said.
"He came back thinking, 'I have to do something for the country,' " Mrs. Pai said. "He pleaded with me to let him do this."
Anant Pai was born on Sept. 17, 1929. Orphaned at an early age, he grew up with relatives near the southern coastal town of Mangalore and in Mumbai, said Mrs. Pai, who as a child was tutored by Mr. Pai. He developed a love for literature and learned several Indian languages.
Trained as a chemical engineer, he gave up engineering early in his career and went to work for The Times of India. There he was involved in managing Indrajal Comics, an imprint that brought American comics like The Phantom and Mandrake to India. But Mrs. Pai said he was dissatisfied with the job because it involved publishing imported stories.
At first, Amar Chitra Katha struggled to find a market, said Subba Rao, a former teacher who joined the enterprise in 1976. Schools would not buy its publications because they considered comic books frivolous, and stores would not stock them because they were not associated with an established brand.
Mr. Pai and Mr. Rao persuaded a school in Delhi to run an experiment in which one group of students was taught history using his comic books and another using traditional methods. Later, both groups were given the same test. The results showed that those who had studied using the comics learned more than those who did not, Mr. Rao said.
Indian children knew Mr. Pai as "Uncle Pai" because he solicited questions from them and answered their letters under that name in Tinkle, a magazine that Amar Chitra Katha published.
A vegetarian teetotaller, Mr. Pai in many ways lived the life of the ascetics depicted in some of his comics. Mrs. Pai said he went to sleep every night at 9 and rose at 3:30 a.m. to start working after having a cup of tea. Even after his comic books started selling millions of copies, he and his wife stayed in a modest two-bedroom apartment in central Mumbai.
In 2007, the publishing company that owned Amar Chitra Katha sold it to two entrepreneurs, who have been building on the comics business by investing in TV shows and movies. Mr. Pai stayed on as chief storyteller.
Besides his wife, Mr. Pai is survived by a sister, Sumati Prabhu.
In a 2009 interview, he said his comics had helped foster the "integration" of India, which is made up of hundreds of ethnic groups, by teaching children about its history and legends.
"Unless you have continuity with the past, you can't easily be adjusted with the present," he said. "The acquaintance with the past is a must. You may not agree with it. You can disagree with it, but be aware of it."