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Historical evolution of Indian Calligraphy
Early calligraphy
Beginning in the 2nd century AD, Indic language was transferred using birch bark as a writing surface. Locally, the birch bark was called Bhojpatra in India - patra meaning leaf/bark/sheet in Sanskrit. Palm leaves were used as a substitute to paper, even after paper was available for Indic manuscripts. The leaves were commonly used because they were a good surface for pen writing, which created the delicate and decorative handwriting that is known as calligraphy today. Both sides of these leaves were used and they were stacked on top of each other. People then created holes on the leaves and held them together by string, thus creating the early Indian manuscripts, common in Southeast Asia at the time.
Middle ages
Indian traders, colonists, military adventurers, Buddhist monks and missionaries brought the Indic script to the countries of South East Asia.
The languages of these regions were influenced by Indic language and culture; the influence came in the form of the basic internal structure, the arrangement and construction of syllabic units, manner of representation of characters, and the direction of writing (left to right) (Gaur 2000: 98). Fine Sanskrit calligraphy, written on palm-leaf manuscripts was transported to various parts of South East Asia, including Bali (Ver Berkmoes ?: 45).It is hypothesized that Persian influence in Indian calligraphy gave rise to a unique and influential blend in Indian calligraphy (although a number of different calligraphic traditions existed in India) and that Indian scripts were fundamentally different from scripts used in Arabic and Persian traditions. The notable achievements of the Mughals included some of their fine manuscripts; usually autobiographies and chronicles of the noble class, these manuscripts were initially written in flowing Persian script.This style of wrtting is very important to india
From the 16th century onwards Sikhism played a key role in the history of Indian calligraphy. Sikhs have traditionally handwritten their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, and furnished it with illumination. Sikh calligrapher Pratap Singh Giani (1855-1920) is known for one of the first definitive translations of Sikh scriptures into English.
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Features of Indian calligraphy
Religious texts are the most frequent vehicle for calligraphy in India. Monastic Buddhist communities had members trained in calligraphy and having shared responsibility for duplicating sacred scriptures (Renard 1999: 23-4). Jaina traders incorporated illustrated manuscripts celebrating Jaina saints. These manuscripts were produced using inexpensive material with fine calligraphy (Mitter 2001: 100).
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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