Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s1.1

c9.s1.1

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.