In times when the very art of writing is threatened by the ticking and clicking of digital media, artists are making it a point to return to the warmth of the human hand and the fine art of painting letters in a stylised form with a pen or a brush. The experiments are many, and photographers and painters combine it with other forms for heightened expression and harmony. The art, which is said to have originated in the times of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-22O CE), spread to the Indian subcontinent, Japan and Europe. Ancient sacred texts were calligraphed and the tradition spread far and wide all over the world and evolved in different styles.
India has a long tradition of calligraphy, and it continued through the 20th century with children painting the alphabet on the takhti (wooden board) with a sharpened reed pen and the practice continued for long in village schools. It is this joy of…
