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Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s1: White

Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s1

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White

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The nature of white used in Western Indian book illustrations, specially in the palm-leaf period, has not yet been ascertained by scientific analysis. It could not have been white lead or zinc-white, as these pigments are not mentioned in the medieval Sanskrit texts on painting. The *Mānasollāsa*, otherwise known as *Abhilashitārthachintāmaṇi*, a work composed in 1131 A.D. by Someśvara, mentions burnt conch-shell² (*śveteshu pūrayet śaṅkham*) as pure white employed by the artists. In his study of palm-leaf illustrations from Nepal, Mr. E. Vredenburg³ takes the white used there as probably white lead, but Mr. Ajit Ghose objects to this assumption, on the ground that white lead would not lend itself to tempera work.⁴ In his opinion there is every possibility that the kaolin and chalk were used for white. In the list of the formulas for mixing colours, which Muni Puṇyavijayajī obtained from two stray paper folios ⁵, however, the use of zinc-white is ordained. The possibility is that this colour was introduced in India in the 16th century, or even a little earlier, by the Muslims, as the word *safedā* for zinc-white is of Persian origin.

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² *Mānasollāsa*, Vol. II, 1, 156.

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³ Continuity of pictorial tradition in art of India, *Rūpam*, Jan. 1920, p. 9.

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⁴ *Rūpam*, July 1929, pp. 80–81.

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⁵ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, I. pp. 47, 119–120.

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The use of zinc-white by Mughal painters till recently, raises an important question whether the *safedā* used in Mughal paintings of 16th and 17th centuries was in reality the zinc-white, or was it white lead, as the process of making zinc-white was discovered in the 18th century. It seems, there has been some confusion of nomenclatures after zinc-white was available in the market. The question could, however, be only finally settled after a careful scientific analysis of the whites used in Western Indian paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries and early Mughal paintings.

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It is a well known fact that white lead was used extensively in medieval European paintings, though it has two drawbacks—firstly, it is poisonous and, therefore, the source of potential danger to workmen, and, secondly, as a water-colour pigment, it may be blackened by sulphur gases in the air. It is remarkable, however, as noticed by Prof. D. V. Thompson ⁶, that this darkening of colour is uncommon in medieval manuscripts, and, in medieval panel-paintings, this phenomenon is quite unknown. From the medieval painter's point of view, it was a further fault of white lead that it was incompatible with verdigris and orpiment in mixtures. As orpiment was frequently used in Western Indian miniatures with white, it is apparent that it is not white lead but, perhaps, burnt conch-shell, kaolin or chalk.

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⁶ Thompson, *The Materials of Medieval Painting*, p. 94.

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Fig. 138

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Another white mentioned in the *Mānasollāsa*, in connection with the plastering of the wall before painting, is *nāgā*⁷. It is said to have been found in the Nilgiris. What it actually was, we are unable to say, but, perhaps, it is kaolin or gypsum. In the *Śilparatna*⁸, white (*dhavalavarna*) used as priming was obtained from burnt conch-shell or white earth, the exudation of elephant apple and *nīm* serving as binding media.

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⁷ *Mānasollāsa*, II, 1, 139.

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⁸ *Chitralakshana*, ss. 28-29.

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The method of preparing zinc-white for painting is as follows: The best quality of Kāshgar zinc-white is ground and sifted through a piece of muslin. This powder is gradually dissolved in *dhau*-gum solution in a porcelain basin, till it attains the consistency of thick milk. This mixture is slowly drained in to another basin, so that the impurities deposited at the bottom are left over. This process is repeated several times, till pure zinc-white is obtained. It is then dried in the sun and is ready to be used.

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