Talapatra is a traditional Indian art form in which writing, painting, and engraving, was done with palm leaves. This led to several languages, like Tamil, Telugu, Malayam, Odia, Sinhala, adopt unusually "curly" calligraphy. This is because straight angles tend to damage the palm leaves. This influence can be seen in the redesign of the Royal Enfield logo in the last few years from the original one that has been around at least since 1920,
for instance, this is from the Olympia Show of that year,
This is the modern version,
I'd never heard this origin story before but it is very interesting. The modern design is sometimes referred to as "the elephant trunk design," a reference to Royal Enfield's modern home in India. Like the elephant, the logo has a very regal look. Very appropriate, I think.
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