Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c8.s1.t2.4

c8.s1.t2.4

Surface preparation.—Before the painting was started on cloth, a priming of the paste made from the wheat or rice flour was applied to fill up the pores of the cloth. After the priming had dried, the cloth was thoroughly burnished with an agate burnisher.⁶ This was the regular method of preparing surface in Western Indian paintings on cloth. In the cloth-paintings from Bengal and Orissa, however, a different method was followed. Here, the cloth, which was usually of an even surface, was coated with a thin layer of plastic clay which had been carefully pounded and usually mixed with cow-dung beaten to thin paste. When dry, the surface was rubbed till it became smooth, and it was then ready for painting.⁷