Ink beyond scripture: The revival of Arabic calligraphy in South India

Steered by women and social media, Arabic calligraphy is seeing a resurgence in South India as an art form, beyond religious texts like the Quran

Achyut Palav, 66, the Mumbai-based Marathi master calligrapher who was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025, recalls the day when his Class VIII teacher assigned him the task of writing ‘Thought for the day’ on the blackboard. Little did he know that it would lead him to a career in typography and letters.

Palav is credited with the creation of ‘Mukta Lipi’, an amalgamation of Modi and Devanagari scripts. His ‘Calligraphy Roadways’ project in 2024 introduced young students from more than 20 Indian colleges, such as National Institute of Design and Indian Institutes of Technology, to calligraphy as an art form. “Calligraphy teaches patience and concentration. One has to be very aware of one’s stance and space when writing. And the beauty of calligraphy is that it makes even a simple word or phrase look like a masterpiece,” says the founder of Navi Mumbai’s Achyut Palav School of Calligraphy.

Padma Shri Achyut Palav with his artwork, a combination of Om and Shri Ganesha using Arabic calligraphy. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Mumbai-based Marathi master calligrapher Achyut Palav’s artworks. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Said to have been seen in ancient scripts such as Brahmi and Kharosthi, Indian calligraphy today encompasses the vast linguistic heritage of the nation. Regional scripts like Bengali, Tamil and Telugu used calligraphy from 6th-16th centuries, while from the 8th-12th centuries, Arabic and Persian calligraphy blended with Indian styles to create a vast ocean of literary and artistic works.

There was a time when India’s popular culture and artistic sensibilities were shaped by multilingual calligraphy — for instance, in Urdu, which adapted from the Arabic script. Indian film posters (Alam Ara, 1931; Mughal-e-Azam, 1960; Pakeezah, 1972), wedding cards, shop hoardings and even legal documents were handwritten/hand-painted in Urdu, as were a number of magazines (Shama; Din Dunia) and newspapers (The Musalman) that set the foundation of a booming publishing industry. Until 2020, The Musalman, published from Chennai, was known to be among the few handwritten publications in India. “We went for online production since the pandemic, and now print 15,000 copies every day. Our readers are spread across the nation,” says editor Syed Arifullah.