Travelling across India changes what we see, hear and read.
The writing on a railway station sign shifts from one script to another. Letters painted across buses begin to take unfamiliar forms. Shopfronts, newspapers, menus and street signs reveal that we have entered a different linguistic region, sometimes before anyone has spoken a word to us.
A script does more than communicate information. It can make a place immediately recognisable.
For someone who grew up reading it, even an ordinary letter can carry the familiarity of schoolbooks, handwritten notes, local newspapers and conversations at home. For someone encountering it while travelling, the same letter can become a symbol of discovery.
This visible, everyday beauty of Indian languages inspired Varnamala, a Paryatak collection that transforms familiar letterforms into colourful designs for notebooks and reusable sipper bottles.
Bharat can be recognised through its letters
India’s linguistic diversity is usually discussed through the number of languages spoken across the country. Yet this diversity is also visual.
Each writing system has its own structure, movement and rhythm. Some letterforms appear rounded and flowing; others are recognised by strong horizontal lines, compact forms, open curves or intricate combinations of strokes. Even when we cannot read a script, we can begin to recognise its visual personality.
These letters are not confined to manuscripts, textbooks or formal displays. They live throughout public and private life: on destination boards, election posters, cinema signs, packaging, calendars, notebooks, phone screens and handwritten shopping lists.
Varnamala begins with the idea that these familiar forms deserve to be noticed, not only as carriers of words, but also as expressions of culture, memory and identity.
Why we created Varnamala
Language-inspired products are often built around quotations, slogans or translations. Varnamala takes a different approach.
Instead of asking the letters to form a message, the collection allows the letters themselves to become the subject of the design.
Individual characters are arranged with colour, decorative forms and botanical elements to create lively surface patterns. A letter that might usually appear on a ruled page or classroom chart is given a new visual setting. It remains recognisable, but it is allowed to become playful, contemporary and expressive.
The intention is not to turn language into decoration without meaning. It is to celebrate the forms people already read, write and encounter every day, and to place those forms on objects that can remain part of everyday life.
What Varnamala means
The word varnamala is often understood as an ordered arrangement or “garland” of letters. It is a familiar term in several Indian linguistic traditions, particularly in the context of learning how a language is written.
For this collection, Varnamala acts as a unifying creative idea: a celebration of letters drawn from different Indian languages and writing traditions.
That does not mean every language follows an identical structure or that every script can be described in precisely the same way. India’s languages have developed through different histories, and the relationship between a language and a script is not always one-to-one.
Hindi and Marathi, for example, are primarily written in Devanagari, while Assamese and Bengali use closely related writing systems. A shared or related script does not erase the distinct literary, regional and cultural identity of each language.
Varnamala brings these designs into one collection while allowing every represented language to retain its own name and connection.
Ten languages, ten visual worlds
The collection currently includes designs representing:
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Assamese
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Bengali
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Gujarati
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Hindi
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Kannada
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Malayalam
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Marathi
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Odia
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Punjabi in Gurmukhi
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Telugu
Together, these designs show how many different visual experiences can emerge from the simple act of writing.
The collection does not attempt to explain the complete history or structure of every language. Nor does it suggest that ten designs can represent the full scale of India’s linguistic diversity. Instead, each product offers an entry point, an invitation to notice the character of a script and perhaps feel a personal connection to the language it represents.
For one person, that connection may come from the language spoken at home. For another, it may come from school, literature, friendship, family history or a region encountered while travelling.
When everyday letters become art
The Varnamala designs are colourful without becoming formal alphabet charts. Letters appear as part of a complete composition, accompanied by decorative shapes and natural elements that give every product its lively character.
This approach creates an interesting contrast.
The letterforms may be deeply familiar, especially to someone who learned to write them as a child. Their new arrangement, however, invites the viewer to look at them again, not merely to read them, but to observe their lines, proportions and movement.
That shift is at the heart of Varnamala. The collection does not need to rank one script as more beautiful, complicated or historic than another. Its purpose is to make room for several visual traditions and allow each to be appreciated on its own terms.
Notebooks made for more words
The A5 notebook is a natural home for the Varnamala idea.
Letters return to an object made for writing, but this time they appear on the cover before a single page has been filled. The connection makes the notebook especially suitable for journalling, study notes, language practice, sketches, travel observations and everyday planning.
It can be chosen by a native speaker who wants to carry a familiar script, a student learning the language or someone who simply enjoys Indian typography and stationery.
A notebook may eventually contain thoughts written in one language, several languages or no words at all. Its Varnamala cover still recognises writing as something personal: a way of recording what we learn, remember and imagine.
Letters that travel on sippers
The reusable sipper bottle gives the same artwork a different life.
Instead of remaining on a desk or bookshelf, the letters travel to college, work, the gym, a commute or a journey. The design turns a practical object into a small expression of linguistic identity without requiring a slogan or an explanation.
For someone living away from their home region, a familiar script can provide a quiet sense of connection. For multilingual households and friend groups, different Varnamala designs can also become thoughtful gifts that recognise the languages forming part of each person’s life.
The notebook celebrates writing. The sipper celebrates movement. Together, they show how language belongs in both reflective and everyday spaces.
Who is Varnamala for?
Varnamala was created for more than one type of customer.
It may appeal to native speakers who feel affection for their language, students discovering a new script, writers and readers who appreciate letterforms, travellers interested in regional culture, or people searching for a gift connected to someone’s linguistic identity.
It can also speak to Indians whose lives do not fit within a single language. Many people grow up hearing one language at home, studying in another, working in a third, and picking up parts of several more through travel and friendship.
Choosing one Varnamala design does not have to be a declaration of a single identity. It can simply recognise one of the languages that has shaped a person’s life.
Carry the letters that connect you
Languages travel with people.
They move between villages and cities, across state boundaries and into new homes. They pass through families, classrooms, books, songs and everyday conversations. Their letters remain present in both significant cultural works and the smallest handwritten notes.
Varnamala brings those letters into contemporary everyday design. It offers a way to carry a familiar script, appreciate an unfamiliar one, or give someone an object connected to a language they value.
The current collection is only one part of a much larger linguistic landscape. As Varnamala grows, more languages and writing traditions can join this evolving celebration of the many ways in which Bharat reads, writes and expresses itself.
Explore the Varnamala collection and choose the letters that connect you to a language, a place or a part of your story.
