Living with Kannada script

As a child, I am not sure when I began using sounds to get attention or help. My mother made me repeat A, Aa, E, Ee, U,Uu,E, Ee, I, O,Oo, Ow, Am, Aha….many times. After a year, I was made to trace “OM” with my finger on a plate full of rice. It was a moment of sitting on fathers lap and feeling close. I was beginning to see alphabets all around in school books, on autos, buses, shops, posters. I could speak, but I had to learn them by repeating and tracing. My cousins showed off their skills of spelling words.

Magically, I had started using letters to make words, read lessons. I forgot how letters ‘looked’ as my mind was more engaged in stories.My friends liked my handwriting. I was impressed. I wrote in many styles and made fun shapes with letters. I loved playing with it like any other toy. I practiced on 4 lines grid, square boxes, plain paper. I used fountain pen, ball point pens.

Letters helped me pass exams! Read books. I had become insensitive to its shape and beauty by tenth grade.

While studying architecture, I was glad as I could play with it again. I used markers, ink, 4B pencils, Rotring pens. Letters looked thick, thin, tall, stout, angular. I made effects by making letters graphical. I drew them making posters, comic books and in drawings of buildings.

Computers rushed into my life. It presented hundreds of fonts!. I was confused. It had letters from all cultures except my culture!. I saw Gothic, Modern, Scandinavian styles. I forgot my language and how it ‘looked and felt’ for some time. It was so much of information.

I used Courier new, Helvetica, Minion Pro, Rotis, Avenir. I was moderately happy. I hated Arial as my graphic designer friends hated it. On web I worked with Ocean Sans, Roboto. Things looked cleaner and neater. But I could not sense ‘character’ or had any sensory feelings that can be felt with with a leaf or straw in hand or ink on paper. I missed the smell, texture and play of light on its form.

Kannada looked bad on news papers, magazines like Taranga, Sudha, Tushara. I hated to read it. It was jarring. I had to understand why this happens. Why do we not take care?

Why does ‘A’ look like ‘A’? Why does ‘Aa’ sit next to ‘A’? Is 49 letters sufficient for all our words in Kannada? Which letters touch our heart? Or is it only through words and making meanings one gets touched? Does ‘ Shape’ fall short? These questions surfaced continuously.

How could ‘Brahmi’ become ‘Kannada’? How long did it take? Why did my letters become rounded like Jilebis? While Brahmi script has straight lines and designed to carve easily on clay tablets as well as stone, Kadamba script getting the rounded edges as they were used to write manuscripts on palm leaves. Sharp needle was used to carve out delicate palm leaf. Straight line would have torn it apart. Curves held the palm surface and the gathered the ink to restore it for a longer time. Kings later carved Kannada letters on stone (Sashanas). They left their royal marks on stone inscriptions.

Then a hundred years ago, a christian missionary opened a printing press to print Bible in Kannada. Kannada letters were type set and printed on paper for posters, newspapers and magazines. Later the same was digitally copied to computers.

Brahmi > Kadamba > Old Kannada > New Kannada. I tried a poster to help see how Kannada script has travelled over a period of time. Feel free to download and print.

Visual collection of of Kannada script, past & the present

Aksharabhyasa (Initiation to letterform)