The Modi script

Not about national policy, this is about a sightless history scholar-polyglot, reviving an ancient Indian script, making it a research tool, a job skill, and a source of joy

Online learning, by definition, can be devoid of interactive classroom fun. But, more so when a heterogeneous student mix is trying to appreciate a written script (preceding Devanagari), which has ceased to be the medium of correspondence since 1960 in the state of Maharashtra.  Dr Abhidha Dhumatkar, the brain behind the 160-hour intensive course on the Modi script, has therefore, factored in students’ need for timely visual sharing of Modi writings, even as the course assumes an online life.  “What students miss the most in their digital lessons, is the blackboard joy. The script is essentially pictorial, each alphabet requiring a stroke that students love to practise and compare amongst themselves,” recalls Dr Dhumatkar,  who designed the course three years ago, initially for her own college and later, crafted an edition for all and sundry.  

At this point,  around 200 students have opted for the weekend-weekday batches, which  includes current online participants from as far as Nagpur and Kolkata.  To begin with, Dr Dhumatkar’s History department students enrolled, mainly the ones who had an induction in the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts.  But now, it enjoys a wider clientele—academics, homemakers, government officials, lawyers, archivists, artists and translators.  The upcoming Modi calligraphy workshop is another uniting platform in which the students of varying ages are going to explore the harmony in Modi lettering, for which broad-tipped pens and boru brushes will be used.  As says visual artist and Sir JJ School of Art alumna, Kavita Lele, who took the course last year, Modi—etymologically it refers to broken-bent letters—lends itself to a lyrical playfulness, as against the currently used official Devanagari. She feels Modi is a rich outreach tool for school-college notice boards. The class, in fact, inspired her to etch Modi lettering on her trademark umbrella, stoles and wall pieces.

A few samples of Modi lettering; the script's curvature lends itself to many calligraphic experiments

While Modi’s curvature and its geometrical beauty is the driving force behind the course, it is Dr Dhumatkar’s approach towards writing systems that makes this Modi curriculum noteworthy in the current academic environment.  For someone who has never seen Modi (or any) alphabetical order—born sightless in 1971—and who mind mapped the letters after literally being “hand-held”, Dr Dhumatkar’s advocacy for Modi is inspiring.  She feels Modi opens many doors in Maharashtra where Maratha administrators as well as commoners used it from 12th century onwards; Marathas took it as far as Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Rajasthan. Therefore, along with Modi’s composition, vital is its currency in a vast geo-political expanse, starting from the Yadav period to Shivaji Maharaj’s rule to the British era. Modi, therefore is a window to key exchanges; it sensitises students to the now-forgotten units of measurement (quantifying gold, land, grocery etc); it is a peep into varying letter writing styles; it also denotes power equations and land-based social status. 

Dr Dhumatkar promotes Modi with a marketeer’s zeal. “I see it as a special feather in the job seeker’s hat, considering the dearth of experts who can deconstruct/catalogue ancient land revenue files in the state archives directorate,” she chuckles, alluding to the experience of a Bombay High Court lawyer who recently enrolled in her Modi class. Modi has come to his rescue in a high-profile land grab scandal in which a Solapur district cleric has made false claims of having received 4,500 acres from none other than Emperor Aurangzeb. The claimant allegedly colluded with the Archaeological Survey of India officials and revenue department hands in order to produce forged Modi documents, which were ultimately bared before the court. Even as the National Highway Acquiring Authority will now decide on the land ownership status, Dr Dhumatkar is only happy about her student’s intervention as a script decoder. 

For many students, Dr Dhumatkar’s personal academic journey, her traipsing over visual challenges, adds a “test-case quality” to the Modi course. Her authority on subjects as diverse as Goan temples, Muslim Personal Law, ancient Indian drugs, and the Bombay plague, provides a rich backdrop to the course. She sets an example of continuous learning in later years, be it the mastery over Sindhi or initiation into the Kathak dance form. As says Prasanna Shikhare, (pursuing Masters in History) student-turned-faculty for the Modi lessons, it is a joy to work with a persevering academic. While she has over 15 published research papers to her credit, Dr Dhumatkar is a PhD guide to many; and has presented papers in numerous city institutes, which span from Gender in Hindustani Music to Historiography of Modern Science. She has designed varied short-term curricula to inculcate interest in regional languages like Bengali and Urdu. 

The scholar, a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust (London) fellowship, believes history students cannot limit themselves to archaeological tools; they must be equipped with literary insights to study any ancient period—European or Mughal or Peshwa. And, the earlier they realise, the better, because their receptivity is not optimum at the post-graduate level. She feels often history students become too set in their ways to see possibilities outside textbooks.  

Dr Dhumatkar’s multidisciplinary approach shows in the choice of her own doctorate in “Spread of Science in Maharashtra: Colonial Policy and Indian response 1879-1947”, which she accomplished through the senior research fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.  She inherits her broad interests from her late father (officer in LIC) and 75-year-old living mother. The latter, in fact, gets the credit for single-handedly raising two visually challenged daughters, both not taught in blind schools but “mainstreamed” in the best of institutions, some of which had initial reservations about a blind student. 

“I still have vivid memories of my mother, while rolling polis, teaching us the alphabets, numbers, colours and currency basics. She urged us to capitulate the concepts in our mind instead of eyes.” Dr Dhumatkar feels unfettered and unprejudiced imagination is at the heart of any learning, be it a script or a formula; it is immensely enabling, irrespective of the odds. The awareness of the power of imagination was a gift from her parents. She is now taking her turn to pass it on.

Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub-text.  You can reach her at  sumedha.raikar@mid-day.com

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