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Script : A Contribution of Visual Arts | Santosh Kshirsagar | TEDxYouth@HFSI


how do I
right
so most welcome today
first and foremost which I have to tell
you is a little bit about my background
which is not there in bio-data I am
coming from overlap ler medium karate
medium school and therefore my English
grammar your rescues me if I will make
some funny mistakes in that today’s
message is most important for you and
therefore I here
second thing is we are talking about
visual arts generally what we know about
yeah okay what we know about visual art
generally is divisions which are created
from so many years by so many artists in
which we include visual arts means
painting sculpture architecture and so
on and then what comes is famous artists
and the isms you know like for example
from realism to surrealism to photo
realism and so on the moment the
technology and the production methods
have changed and came into existence
slowly the visual art has changed as
well and in which journey we have
forgotten we what exactly the visual art
has contributed as a child I was also
quite fearless to understand what
exactly visual art has given to us in
inform I know many famous artists life I
know there are paintings that are
sculpture their architectures and
exhibitions happens and people get
dreamers and paintings are really sold
on a high price and that’s what
generally we have a notion about visual
art as a fundamental and later on what
technology has taken few things from
visual art and has made human life ISM
that’s all we know
in nutshell of this large history of
visual art so far what we are trying to
more closely is it a sculpture looks
like structure as we go a little more
closer there are science this is what is
the link what we have forgotten these
are the slides from the Ben Whittaker
case from in here very much from India
almost of like thousands of years ago
when man used to not talk but used to
just draw and make some signs on the
walls and we have forgotten the sign
slowly developed into a language of sign
and then about about say 100 thousand
years ago we started making verbal
science and communicating with each
other yeah it took about sixty thousand
years for us to come to the level of
world we have forgotten that and really
there is no source that by which we can
understand this you know so a man has
taken a long time to come to simply of a
proposition of a word and then sentence
and tense formulated so actual spoken
language took a long time and then but
simultaneously and parallely the vision
was going on the planning the visual
works as a tool or language itself a
complete language of planning and
mapping and hunting we have just
understood about it and we have looked
at it as a black magic or something like
that but moreover which is
simultaneously or family developing is a
language of written sign that is how it
I know this image yeah although it’s a
representative concept but there is an
animal and there are science the Indus
Valley about five thousand years ago
so script we can say by evidence just
born about say six thousand years ago as
compared to a spoken language it is so
lived in a way that means it’s the most
mature it’s the most mature in creation
of a human being and that exactly what I
want to say here today that we have
forgotten that how visual art was
responsible for the discovery of a
script for us not just this and making a
study as an Indian culture and Indian
script studies but all over the world
it’s something same although the script
system formulated differently like
politics and alphabetic and celebrity
and on other hand to East for
petrography whatever but they are all
written scripts and through which the
whole world communicates and that’s one
of the most fundamental profound
contribution of a visual art where we
have never paid attention to and it’s
not an invention of one person it’s an
anonymous
just imagine logically can someone in
render script not possible it’s a
unanimous society who accepts those
signs and impure certain values to it
and they decide from now onwards we will
call this particular letter x value as
we go further we see in indus valley and
particularly in India how it has
developed something similar also happen
all over the world yeah this is a set of
Indus Valley script but the point here I
wanted to say that the system system the
visual art and then sign and then the
script and the script system this script
system is very much we are aware by the
way how many from the audience knows in
the language can can you raise him yeah
can you read that right Wow
that’s the that’s
from regulations because when we know
I’m not just trying to be patriotic or
saying as an Indian that we know in the
language it’s fantastic we will try to
understand from Indus Valley I will not
blame but our structure of the script or
the system is what similar which is
based on spawning spoken even today most
of the languages are spoken yes all of
them all of them are spoken languages
and to interpret spoken language the
script which India has deciphered is
something amazing as compared to the
other systems of steps a spectrographic
or I geographic or is also known as
logographic step and on other hand a few
26 levels and working with those with
varying political use for one symbol or
the letter in India
this is Rama’s third century BC gram mr.
look like a simple cross so you can
imagine how profound and simple the sign
was this is letter curved from 3rd
century BC branding and how it has
gotten further about 25 times it has
changed and in to a contemporary letter
which you and me and realize and you can
recognize it I suppose we can recognize
this latter form right this is though so
it has changed about 25 times the entire
metamorphosis of the visual form we can
still see within evidences the issue
here is the values underneath the letter
curve has remained as it is for 3,000
years
moreover the value of war bonds and
consonant system which is one of the
most scientific and even today although
it’s we found it very complex to learn
but it’s a complex input but it’s
extraordinary
simple output so here we are have you
seen our currency note and have you seen
how many languages are there you know we
have about ten steps officially can be
you know used for
various examiner’s on our note we find
less but twenty six official languages
in there is only country where we are
disturbing news to cannot say invent
inducement for example money Puri is
newly discovered step we don’t know you
know for example there are there are
scripts for two new language so this is
the only country where the world is
becoming more and more globalized this
is only country where we find the new
slips not the new one which are
suppressed or are not seen this world
for about 200 to 300 years they are
coming up again because to to have the
script in existence in today’s world
required a print required a phone or a
time to exist and to carry forward that
to the next generation so some of the
scripts has really we’re not having the
types of fonts and therefore they remain
into under underneath or into ship and
most of the languages then started using
Roman or latin scripts so India is a
country where recent number says that
more than 800 languages and 34 steps I
myself also have seen all 34 but we at
least know that 11 scripts exist so it’s
not that we just skipped wise richest
country in the world but apart from that
what I want to make a point here is our
own scripts follows the same system that
is woven consonants and ligatures which
i’ve made out of it that is what is also
known as production or abduction the
join letters the time orbits and and
we are here do we know little bit about
India in true sense as residents are
concerned there are more than 1 lakh
20,000 newspaper published every day
that means someone must be spending
money to print them that means somebody
must be reading them and that means the
scripts are alive and that’s what
excited in your dog you know to tell you
a small story when I was like 20 and
first and suddenly gone to a western
country and I planned it up for five
days in in Paris I wanted to share that
experience how I progressively realize
the value of index if not because I’m an
Indian or not because I’m coming from
vernacular school and all that yeah I
was sitting in Paris in a restaurant I
made a friend and my friend was by it
that I after some conversation he
realized that I’m going to leave Paris
in three days and now I don’t know
French he said how I’m going to survive
you you know you don’t know French ok he
pulled the tissue tissue paper and he
wrote my important sentence in strange
and by using the Roman lattice I said
look I’m really not so good even reading
English in Roman script you see and you
are giving me challenges of such a long
spellings of French language how I am
going to simply read it he said ok I
recite for you and all that I said it’s
very difficult for me to remember and
there was a silence for a long time and
my thing was really really but it
because not a single sentence of prior
French language and how you’re going to
survive for three more days here I said
ok we’ll find it out in Indian attitude
like cheetah I’ll take care of myself
somehow you know and I’ll make a
gestural language give me bread with
this where this goes and where this road
goes and all that he said yeah fine
you’re open but it’s very important to
also know the French language again a
big silence I said ok I have an idea you
just pronounce me the sentence which you
found it posted
any pronounce the first and most
important sentence was which to sort the
problem is father who’s unlit so that
was a question
Paulo Sandra do you know English I said
yeah okay that’s that’s a good sentence
let me write it down and I wrote it in
Devanagari and I wrote it in Devanagari
believe me I was struggling to simply
get a correct pronunciation by
understanding the Roman script and when
I wrote it in there lovely I said Wow
and my friend said Wow you can now
pronounce it so well I said I may not
have to even now remember because it’s
gone in you know that’s the facet of
knowing for it expected or which is
scientifically also called alpha
syllabary system of steps you know so
that’s one of the greatest asset where I
wanted to really you know make you all
you know point it out that if you know
Hindi and if you know they’ve done it
fantastic cool down do it it will really
love you a lot of things wherever you
are going in any part of the world you
of way it will help you in this manner
you know and I said the purity of the
script scientific aspect of the script
if in those days there was no mail there
was no there was no mobile nothing and
then you just I I said if I fax this
paper to my mom she will read it in the
same manner the way I did so the greater
set of the very secret is basically what
you speak that you write if you write
wrongly it will be read wrong
if you write correctly it will be read
correctly innocently but correctly you
know they will not be today utilize
fired a few languages in India as you
know these are official like my body in
the sanskrit marathi and so you can just
take out any newspaper of nepali
newspaper and you can read if you know
they were angry
it will might not mean you quickly but
you will able to read that very very
shortly that’s for sure let’s understand
this function
two cents and how it goes further why
don’t want you to again and against less
not just the script system because it is
an interdisciplinary idea of a human
being but visual art is extremely you
know responsible for its existence today
that’s why and let’s understand how the
visual language transformed into a
script in particularly in Indian scripts
and I’m sure you a quick journey of or
the visual grammar of the nominee which
you can you can see although you can’t
read it but if you can read it nothing
like it but if you can see you’ll come
to know that there is one single form
and there are four ways join of these
most of Indian scripts has the similar
logic of usual and then there is a
celebrity form so you actually learn a
very less letter forms but the
combinations and permutations and
combinations takes you to more than
about 26,000 graphic forms which you
know and if you know how to write Hindi
into the Devanagari that means you know
26,000 letter forms
hello I am NOT talking about language
you don’t have to separately remember
them I know but maybe you are not aware
now to specially motivate this
particular thought or a message what we
have done from glass many years and many
students from my college that I teach
started coming together and they also
found that it’s so important to really
preserve this particular script culture
and moreover spread it and also to
motivate others to particularly to
youngsters what they can do is not a
single person job so many people came
together and the cumulative in
organization we just a non-governmental
nonprofit organization and which is now
working taking lots of workshops and
demonstrations but you can see how how
and letters can be 8c this is what the
new generation where they are taking it
taught us calligraphy and not just a
Torah fee something beyond that and
that’s what really touched me and I
found that yes the next generation is
taking this particular idea of the skip
on a very different level and to make it
more interesting
eatable what more you want so these are
all in it scripts and the world of
Sheraton Yahoo you and that’s all I
wanted to actually tell you thank you
very much [Applause]
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