The Calligraphic Art of Rajeev Kumar

Calligraphy, the art of writing has many names in India. Called su-lekhan (su meaning beautiful and lekhan meaning writing), khushan visi, su-lipi, sulekh kala,in Hindi, khushkhati, khush nafisi, kitaabat, suloos, and khattaati in Arabic, Persian or Urdu, they all refer to the beautiful art of writing.

These find a true partner in handmade paper especially when the texture does not soak in too much ink from a pen.

Brushwork, writing with bamboo pens, or even a simple sketch pen gives highly aesthetic and beautiful results when a calligrapher’s sure and thoughtful flourish lights up the paper.

The calligraphy of Japan, China and Korea where a few black brush strokes bring magical art to rich cream-coloured paper.

India’s calligraphy flourished during Mughal times, when Persian calligraphers wrote manuscripts illustrated and illuminated by Hindu painters or vice versa.

Paper making happened in many parts of India at that time, in spite of having 22 official languages, 13 scripts and over 700 identified dialects, Independent India has never been known internationally for its calligraphy.

It has many forms of classical and folk art, but although artistic sensibilities of its creative communities are high and widespread, they never extended to calligraphy.

Perhaps this was largely because the communities that painted or crafted did not value or feel the need for being literate. The skills of writing were left to those upper classes that served temples, kings or governments.

Calligraphers who continued valiantly were all Muslim, as the value of writing was originally attributed to the fact that the Prophet Mohammad’s sacred words needed to be written beautifully, so all holy sayings were inscribed lovingly and artistically on whatever surface was chosen.

Calligraphers practicing in multiple Indian scripts are few, but, in the 21st century, there are a growing number, demonstrating, displaying and selling their art works in galleries, schools and at prestigious international events.

The papers acquired from hosiery waste, elephant and rhinoceros dung and the argeli plant were given to four prominent calligraphers of India, Jamyang Dorjee, Rajeev Kumar, Qamar Dagar and Irshad Farooqi, and Sanjhi paper artist Ram Soni, to enhance the visual and tactile experience of exploring handmade paper with their art.

Mist and fog envelop the capital city of India too. In the outskirts, the tops of multi-storeyed apartments reach out above the winter fog.

Delhi calligrapher Rajeev Kumar often uses his camera to capture the mood that will inspire his work.

The Buddha theme coincidentally extends to the work of another calligrapher who practices his art in the devnagari script.

Rajeev Kumar has doodled, calligraphy style in devnagari script on his glass window the words Buddham, Sharanam, Gachhami, meaning, ‘I go to the Buddha for refuge’. His studio can be seen through the glass.

Rajeev Kumar’s large calligraphic work of random alphabets in Devnagari spreads across five large panels at an exhibition of craft and calligraphy while a hand block printer and a visitor walk past.

Rajeev Kumar was an engineer who turned to the art of calligraphy.

He collects material for his works under the title ‘Gems of Indian Thought’ from Indian literature, sacred epics, poems and sayings by Mahatma Gandhi, as texts for his calligraphy.

He experiments with many tools, many of them fashioned by him. He can carve a piece of bamboo into a pen and create a tool out of a sliver of rubber from an old tyre.

The light brushstrokes of Rajeev Kumar’s work show his special style of light and dark, and merging multiple scripts into one form.

‘A’ or ‘Ah’ is considered the first and basic sound made by humans, and therefore the primary alphabet in most languages and scripts.

Bamboo pens made by the calligrapher rest against his work on fine banana fibre paper.

On a sheet of argeli paper, Rajeev writes an evocative word – sahishnuta, meaning ‘tolerance’.

Words like Buddha, Allah, Om, Peace, Love, Humanity or Heritage become meaningful artworks when illustrated in calligraphy.

Argeli paper from Sikkim is also dyed into different shades.

Read more about calligraphy here:
-Calligraphy in Sikkim
-Qamar Dagar
-Irshad Farooqui