The practice of writing is an essential one in South Asian history, one that perhaps goes back to the very first civilization found therein, the Indus Valley Civilization. Over the centuries, the technical, economic, social and the cultural shifts brought about by the inclusion of South Asia in the Persianate and Islamicate cosmopolises has had profound impact on South Asian writing. From scriptural change to material cultural evolution, from palmleaf manuscripts in brahmi-derived scripts to Persian texts on bound paper, the story of writing in South Asia is a pregnant one, with a lasting impact to this day. A reflection on the practice of writing in South Asia goes beyond the linguistic aspect of it all but rather brings into the light important questions such as the readership and the economy behind book exchange and production. Furthermore, when considering the Persian language, such a reflection puts to the fore an important yet often neglected fact: that South Asian readership and textual production in Persian largely outweighed the Iranian.