Writing Instruments In South Asia

April 9, 2015

Almost ten years ago I was in Lahore, Pakistan and picked up a few brass ink pots and a pen case. None are, I'm sure, valuable, but there are some unusual ones, including a couple shaped like Buddhist Stupas.

They're probably from the late 19th century, a few perhaps earlier, and I was wondering what kinds of pens may have been used for these? I'm woefully ignorant of what was traditionally used in South Asia and Himalayan regions for writing. I know China and Japan back a few thousand years, but not sure what was used further west and south.

Would they have been reed pens? Feather quills? I'm sure at some point steel tipped pens came into use, but have no idea when.

Here's a poor snap shot of the ink wells. The half-circle one towards the right may not be for ink. It's top is a threaded screw. The round one in the back between the two stupas may be the oldest. I've seen versions like that in 18th and 19th century illustrations.

Here's a shot of the pen case with it's own built-in ink well on the end. I'm not sure how you'd use this as the ink would come right out if it was tilted at all. The inside seems to be pretty stained with black residue, most likely dried ink. The drawer slides in and out and I'm showing it partially out. So, what kinds of pens would have been stored here? What would have been dipped into the ink wells above?

Any info would be welcome. Thanks!

April 12, 2015

Quills were common back then. Miniature paintings from the Mughal era show quills. Also some version of dip pens.

April 14, 2015

These are nice collections of mughal era writing instruments. They would held both quills and qalam(reed pen) for mughal calligraphy. I did some googling and found a bit more info:

http://www.alexandermerchantart.co.uk/mughal_islamic_india.htm

http://www.michaelbackmanltd.com/92.html

They bear some resemblance to the pictures you have shown. Hope this is useful.

Edited April 14, 2015 by vig2432