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Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s2: Carbon

Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s2

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Carbon

c9.s2.1

Different formulas for the preparation of inks for writing and painting on palm-leaf, cloth and paper are found in the technical literature on painting and writing. In this connection, it should be remembered that the formulas for inks differ in accordance with the materials for which they were to be used. Muni Punyavijayajī has made a detailed study of these formulas⁹ which were, however, exclusively meant for writing on palm-leaf and paper, and do not seem to have been used by the painters. The medieval Sanskrit texts on painting knew only of two formulas for the preparation of black pigment. Thus the *Mānasollāsa*¹⁰ speaks of the lampblack as the only black pigment used in medieval painting (*krshṇe kajjalamishyate*). The *Śilparatna*¹¹ gives the following method for obtaining the lampblack. "In an earthen cup filled with oil, the wick saturated with oil is lighted. Then a globular earthen pot, with the inside of its belly besmeared with dried cowdung, is placed over the flame of the lamp. The lampblack sticking inside the pot should then be scraped, kneaded in an earthen pot and allowed to dry. Then it should be mixed with the *nīm* water, gum and pure water, levigated and then dried." Black pigment, according to the *Śilparatna* again, was obtained from certain mineral. "A barley grain of blue metal (perhaps antimony) should be reduced to fine powder and then mixed with the *kapittha* juice it should be dried."

c9.s2.2

⁹ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, pp. 38 ff.

c9.s2.3

¹⁰ *Mānasollāsa*, II, 1, 157.

c9.s2.4

¹¹ *Chitralakshana*, ss. 47-52.

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