In this artwork, Nikheel Aphale shows the Devanagari letter ‘P’ and its barahkhadi variants (barahkhadi: 12 variants of combining vowels with consonants). The letter P is written in a contemporary style and its fellow variants (Pa, Pi, Pee, Pu, Poo and so on) are depicted to showcase how, together, they create a beautiful and melodious harmony, just like an euphonious orchestra. Incidentally, the Hindi word for orchestra - Vadyavrund, is also cleverly written in stylized calligraphy, in the central part of the artwork.
This artwork is part of the "Varnamala" series by Nikheel Aphale, who considers the Devanagari script to be his muse. Varnamala means "alphabet". Devanagari is an ancient Indian script in which Sanskrit, Hindi, Nepali, Marathi and some other languages are written. Nikheel draws parallels between the constitution of letters and human beings, through the lens of diversity, co-existence and togetherness. His artworks, inspired by and rooted in the beautiful Devanagari script, celebrate the ideals of unity, diversity, humanity and oneness, using letters as a metaphor. For instance, the Devanagari script allows one to write exactly how a word is spoken, reflecting honesty and purity of expression - values much appreciated in human beings. There is also no concept of upper case and lower case letters in the script. All letters are at the same level - no hierarchy, no discrimination in terms of position - perhaps an ideal to strive towards in human society too?
