Typography: A New Meitei Mayek Font, ‘Cheitekkotpee’

Nobody knows about the origin of the Meitei/Meetei Mayek or the Manipuri alphabet. A part of this can be attributed to the fact that we were more developed as a society with an oral tradition of communication and the other to the notorious burning of books and scriptures when the Hindu missionaries terrorised the land in cahoot with the rulers of the day some three centuries ago. It was in the wake of the Muslim onslaught in mainland India. One of the most interesting factors of the Meitei Mayek is that each letter is named after a part of the human body and the numbers are shaped according to the monthly shape of a foetus.

The following graphic is a demo of an upcoming Mayek font, which has been named as Cheitekkotpee. I like typography but I have no idea about font creation except the fact that the process is possible through popular image software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Hopefully I will overcome my design-challenged process in a few days.