What an extraordinary way the reed pen has of drinking darkness and pouring out light!

— Abu Hafs Ibn Burd Al-Asghar

Calligraphy is one of the most stark and straightforward forms of artistic tenor, hence an anonymous person describes it as: “More powerful than all poetry, more pervasive than all science, more profound than all philosophy are the letters of the alphabet, twenty-six pillars of strength upon which our culture rests."

French calligrapher Claude Mediavilla in her monumental work, From Calligraphy to Abstract Painting, describes it as “the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skilful manner”.

Calligraphy in Kashmir

We do not know when exactly Kashmiris began writing but the practice was possibly encouraged by the needs of Buddhist traders and missionaries. Although the Chinese pilgrim Faxan (circa 400 CE) was silent about copying books, his more illustrious follower Xuanzang (7th century) had a number of scribes at his disposal. The type of Kashmiri script his scribes used would have been similar to that seen in the inscription on the base of the Priyaruchi’s brass Buddha. A few years later the Tibetan mission arrived to adopt this script for their own language. However, no early manuscripts have survived from Kashmir or elsewhere with this early Kashmiri script or with the later Sharada script. Examples of the Sharada script of the ancient period can be found in epigraphs and inscriptions, on metal images of the Sultanate period and even on Islamic tombs. While these inscriptions are sometimes visually attractive, they do not constitute a conscious effort in the art of calligraphy, that one encounters in East Asian cultures.

According to C Stanly Clarke, calligraphy as an art of decorative writing was highly esteemed in the East and contributed greatly not only to diffusing but also preserving its languages. This extraordinary appreciation of a minor art was undoubtedly engendered by the Mohammedan law, which prohibited the representation of living things in painting, the artistic spirit craved satisfaction and found it in calligraphy.

The art of rendering emotions into beautifully curved lines was enkindled further by the terse spiritual needs of a culture which came into contact with the Islamic tradition of embellishing names and speech of God as a means to attain the intangible Supreme – an artistic extension to melodiously reciting The Quran.

Therefore the origin of calligraphy in Kashmir find its way with the very arrival of the revered saint Bulbul Shah and the subsequent conversion of Rinchan Shah to Sultan Sadr-ud-Din. Bulbul Shah is said to have been the first calligrapher in Kashmir.

A high art during Mughal rule

The high culture of Kashmir, owing to its strong Islamic undertones, preferred calligraphy to painting and sculpture. Shahi Khan, popularly called Zain-ul-Abideen was the first king to invite calligraphers all the way from Iran and introduced the use of paper instead of bhojapatra (Himalayan Birch tree which was used for writing in ancient times). He ordered the writing of numerous copies of Kashaf, a well-known commentary of the Quran by Allama Zamakhshari.

However, Kashmiri penmanship reached its zenith under the Mughal rulers. Kashmiri artists are known to have invented indelible ink during this period and received handsome rewards for it. The scripts adopted in Kashmir, as recorded by Diwan Kirpa Ram in his Gulzari Kashmir were either in Arabic or in Persian. The styles were Kufi, Naskh, Makramat Suls, Riqa and Raihan in Arabic and Nastaliq Shikast, Gular, Nakhan Shikast, Aniz and Shaifa in Persian.

Abul Fazl praises a Kashmiri calligrapher Muhammad Hussain of Kashmir as Jadu Raqam (writer of magic). His Kashmiri mentor was Moulana Abdul Aziz and both may initially have worked for the Mughal general Mirza Haider Dughalt who brought them to the attention of the imperial court. Muhammad Hussain became the court calligrapher of Akbar and was honoured with the title of Zarin Qalm (the Golden Pen). Abul Fazl praises Hussain as a master calligrapher, having surpassed all his teachers, with his muddat (extensions) and dawair (curvatures) showing proper proportion and ratios to each other.

In the Ain-i Akbari, Abu’l Fazl describes him thus:

“The artist who, in the shadow of the throne of His Majesty, has become a master of calligraphy is Muhammad Husain of Kashmir. He has been honoured with the title Zarrinqalam, the gold pen. He surpassed his master maulana Abdul-Aziz…, art critics consider him equal to Mulla Mir Ali”

Six years after the death of Akbar, Jahangir rewarded Muhammad Hussain Kashmiri with an elephant as a mark of appreciation for his art. While Muhammad Hussain enjoyed the highest position as a calligrapher, numerous other calligraphers in the court like Ali Chaman too owed their origins to Kashmir.

During Shah Jahan’s rule, Muhammad Murad Kashmiri was endowed with the title of Shirin Qalm (The sweet pen). He was considered an equal to the great names of the art, the celebrated calligraphers Mulla Mir Ali and Sultan Ali.

Other Kashmiri calligraphers attached to the court of Shah Jahan were Mulla Mohsin, younger brother of Murad, Mulla Baqir Kashmiri etc. They were considered masters of Nastaliq, Taliq, Nasakh and Shikast, Gulzar, Nakhun, Shafee and Amiz.

Names of a few other Kashmir calligraphers are known but almost certainly some of the most competent must have worked for the Mughal royalty and their governors, as well as other Kashmiri patrons. Abdal-Rahram, the son of Ali al-Kashmiri who, while visiting Mecca, copied a manuscript of holy sites in Mecca and Medina in Arabia. Akhund Baha-ud Din and Haider Kashmiri were other famous penmen of Nastaliq style, followed by Yaqub Muhammad son of Murad Kashmiri who excelled in Kufi style and compiled a book on calligraphy.

During the rule of the Sikh dynasty, Murad Baig, Mirza Saif-ud Din, Khwaja Abd-ur Rahman Naqshbandi, Bashir Wani, Mir Habibullah Kamili, Mir Muhiyy-ud Din Akmal and Abd-us Samad Dongi earned a great fame. Muhammad Taqi, Imam Dairwi and Ahmad Ali Kashmiri were famous calligraphers of Raja’s court.

Kashmir calligraphers were greatly sought after in other parts of the subcontinent. Lahore was the closest centre of patronage for art and literature, but Kashmiri calligraphers sold their work as far away as Calcutta. This was true of both Hindus and Muslims. The pandits were as proficient in Arabic calligraphy as their Muslim counterparts. Numerous manuscripts of Islamic subjects were copied in Lahore between 1869 and 1873 by Pandit Daya Ram Kaul popularly known as Tota (parrot).

The story of Kashmiri calligraphers can be brought to a conclusion by mentioning a colophon in a manuscript of Dīvān (collected poems) of Nawab Yusuf Alikhan the nawab of Rampur (in Uttar Pradesh) from 1855 to 1875 and the medal of Delhi Durbar in 1903. The manuscript of Nawab was copied in Lahore by Muhammad Nazir Ali ibn Sayyid Ilwad Ali Gardizi, and illuminated by Muhammad Hasan ibn Mulla Muhammad Ali, also called khūshnavīs Kashmiri. Khūshnavīs denotes a calligrapher. He is characterised as a great expert on lapidary work, colouring, and gold work, and regarded as a peer of Manil (a legendary instructor of painting in Persia) and equal of the greatest Persian painter, Bihzad.

In the year 1903, the second Delhi Durbar was held to mark the succession of Edward VII as the Emperor of India and to mark the occasion as special, a Delhi Durbar Medal was struck in gold and silver bearing the inscription “By the Favour of the Lord of the Realm Edward, King, Emperor of India, 1901” in Persian.

The design of the Persian inscription for this medal was undertaken by a Kashmiri calligrapher, Munshi Hussain Ali (d.1933) who was the son of another renowned calligrapher, Munshi Mustafa from Babapora, Haba Kadal. The appreciation for the artist in the form of a letter by a British resident of Kashmir is still preserved at the Munshi family archives in Srinagar.

The allusions, praise and the practice of calligraphers of Kashmir point towards the cultural continuity that the valley of Kashmir had with central Asia. It was not merely an aberrancy along the borders of cultural exchange between central Asia and the Indian subcontinent but rather one of the important epicentres of artistic and literary reinvigoration; rather a politico-cultural entity in its own right.

Khawar Khan Achakzai is a cardiologist based in Kashmir. He is interested in Kashmir history, philosophy and politics.