Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s10.12

c9.s10.12

*Brushes*.—Brushes are one of the most important accessories for painting. They were of various thickness and thinness used for the different purposes of filling colours, outlining, shading, etc. Bhoja, in the *Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra*68, gives a detailed description of the various kinds of brushes which he calls *kūrcha*, a word now used in a derogatory sense for the brushes used for white-washing and kindred purposes. Bhoja divides brushes into five categories, i.e., *kūrcha*, *hastakūrcha*, *bhāsakūrcha*, *chalakūrcha*, and *lepanakūrcha*. In this classification of the brushes, the first was shaped like a new shoot of the banyan, the third, like the needle-point. and the fourth, like a new shoot of the *udumbara* tree. The brushes were made from the soft hair obtained from ears of bullocks and asses and the fibres of the bark of certain trees. In the opinion of Bhoja, however, the best brushes were manufactured from fibres. It is doubtful, however, whether fibre brushes were used to draw fine lines in Western Indian miniatures. In the wall-paintings, however, where such fineness was not required, fibre brushes could be used for at least filling the surface with flat colour washes.