A while back, I read several Amar Chitra Katha comics that present the Hindu pantheon in richly illustrated texts. They are readily accessible and are apparently very popular in India. As a non-Hindu, and non-Indian, for that matter, I still found the series a bit remote and unfamiliar. I'm someone who is very sympathetic to Hinduism, it wasn't any sort of bias against Hinduism, but the books just didn't speak to me. Much of the fault here lies with me. I didn't grow up Hindu and these books assume a familiarity with the legends and traditions that I just don't have.

Along comes Deepak Chopra's India Authentic series and I've run across a series that is much more accessible to me. The first book in the series -- "The Book of Shiva" -- covers a wide range of Hindu deities: Ganesh, Uma, Kali, Indra, and Shiva. The stories are beautifully illustrated and assume pretty much no cultural context. In fact, the book seems to have been written for an NRI audience. Again, that's still not me, but I felt that much of the backstories and context is more accessible. The power of the stories come across and seem more realistic (in a spiritual sense) than the Amar series. ( )