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Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s3: Red Pigments

Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s3

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Red Pigments

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Red is the favourite colour with nature. There are red stones, red clays and red limes, in which the oxide of iron is always present. But all such clays and stones cannot be used, as these are slightly tinged with colour which disappears when it is being separated. Therefore, only such clays are chosen in which the oxide of iron is present in sufficient quantity.

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In the medieval Sanskrit texts on painting, various shades of red are described. Thus in the *Mānasollāsa*¹², the crude cinnabar (*darada*) stands for blood red; the lac-dye (*alaktaka*) stands for lake red, and the red ochre (*gairika*) for venetian red. In the *Silparatna*¹³, the red lead (*sindūra*) is called soft red (*mridurakta*), the red ochre, as middle red, and the lac-dye, as deep red.

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¹² *Mānasollāsa*, II, 1, 157.

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¹³ *Chitralakshana*, ss. 117–118.

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Red ochre (*gerū*).—It is a colour widely used in ancient paintings, and its hue is light and warm. The Venetian red stands for red ochre in the range of European colours. It is doubtful whether it was used in Western Indian miniatures. According to the *Silparatna*¹⁴, red ochre was levigated on stone for full one day and then pure colour obtained by the washing process.

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¹⁴ *Ib.*, s. 119.

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Red lead (*sindūra*).—It was used by Western Indian painters, specially in the paper period miniatures for yellowish red. The colour was prepared by roasting white lead in open air till it attained deep colour. According to the *Silparatna*¹⁵, the red lead was ground for half a day in water and the process was repeated for twenty-four hours after five days, and then it was kept in a suitable receptacle. The *nīm* gum was used as a medium with it.¹⁶

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¹⁵ *Ib.*, ss. 120–121.

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¹⁶ *Ib.*, s. 122.

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Vermilion or crude cinnabar (*hingola*). This mineral when ground yields a bright red. The following traditional method is used in its preparation. The crude cinnabar is thoroughly levigated in a mortar with the help of sugared water or lime-juice which is a better substitute. Then the cinnabar is allowed to settle and the yellowish water is carefully drained off. The process is repeated fifteen times, or even more, to obtain purest cinnabar. It is again levigated with sugared water or lime-juice and gum, and, after being thoroughly mixed, it is formed into tablets and dried.¹⁷

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¹⁷ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, I, pp. 45, 119.

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In order to ensure that the above mentioned preparation of cinnabar has the right proportion of gum, the cinnabar powder should be examined several times in the course of preparation. For this, a simple experiment is suggested in which a paper is spotted with cinnabar solution, folded and kept in a damp place. If the ends do not stick immediately, then the gum is in right proportion. To determine whether the cinnabar does not possess the right proportion of gum, the cinnabar spot on the paper should be allowed to dry, and if the colour is easily flaked with the fingernails, then it is apparent that it requires more gum.

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Fig. 139] [Figure: Fig. 140] [Figure: Fig. 141

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Realgar or red arsenic (*manaḥśilā*). This brilliant red was very rarely used in medieval Western Indian miniatures. It is a first cousin of the orpiment and is also a sulphide of arsenic. It yields as beautiful an orange yellow as the orpiment. According to the *Śilparatna*¹⁸, realgar (*manaḥśilā*) was reduced to fine powder and then used as a colour.

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¹⁸ *Chitralakṣaṇa*, ss. 120-121.

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Red lakes (*lākṣārasa*). Vermilion was, no doubt, an useful and admired colour, but still it was not adequate enough to produce deep, rich, saturated transparent reds, or even a full range of violet and rosy colours. To obtain dark reds on a small scale, painters are obliged to use other pigments, such as red lakes of organic origin.

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The word "lake", as applied to pigments, is derived from a material known as lacca, from which lake pigments were prepared. What was ordinarily known as lacca is, however, not known. It may, however, be surmised that the material was dark red incrustation of resin which is produced on certain kind of trees by certain kinds of insects. This resin is the source of shellac. If the crude material is boiled in water containing a little alkali, the colouring matter is dissolved in water and sold as lac-dye. The colours which lac-dye can be made to produce are quite violet, and they are apt to be not very brilliant. The lac-lake in European painting was primarily a panel-painting colour, being too dark and dull for books and not stable enough for walls.¹⁹

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¹⁹ Thompson, loc. cit., pp. 109-110.

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In the medieval Indian texts on painting, however, *lākṣārasa* or lac-dye, as a colour, is very well known. In the *Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa*²⁰, lac-resin (*lākṣā*) is mentioned as one of the colouring materials. In the *Mānasollāsa*²¹, lac-dye (*alaktakarasa*) is prescribed for transparent red (*rakta*), and it was also used for obtaining various mixed shades. In the *Śilparatna*²², it is described as a deep transparent red (*atirakte tu samyojyam varṇe lākṣārasam*). From the colour lists of Western Indian painters supplied by Muni Punyavijayaji²³, lac-dye (*ālato*) was used as red, and also mixed with other colours to obtain various shades.

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²⁰ *Viṣṇudharmottara*, III, 40.

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²¹ *Mānasollāsa*, II, 1, 156.

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²² *Chitralakṣaṇa*, s. 118.

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²³ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, I, pp. 119-120.

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The following method of preparing lac-dye is given by Muni Punyavijayaji²⁴:— Pure water should be made to boil at a high temperature. In this bubbling hot water, the powder of lac-resin should be gradually mixed. The water should be stirred all the time to prevent the solidification of the resin. After this, the temperature of the water should be raised, and at the interval of every ten minutes the powders of the lode and borax should be thrown in. To ascertain whether the colour was ready, a simple experiment is suggested. Dipping the pen in the solution, a few lines should be drawn on the hand made paper. If the ink does not split, then the colour is ready. The concoction is then taken down from the fire, and, after the water has dried up, the residue is used as colour.

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²⁴ Ib., p. 40, fn. 55.

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The following is the proportion of the ingredients in the formula : ¼ seer water, 1 tolā good dry resin of the pīpal known as lākhdānā, ½ tolā Pathānī lodh and one anna weight of borax. The quantities of these ingredients have to be multiplied proportionately if more lac-dye is required. If the lac-dye was used on palm-leaf then madder, one-fourth of the quantity of resin was added as it deepened the shade.

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Pothī.—A variety of Indian lake was also obtained from the dark red berries of the poī-plant. The colour, as mentioned in the lists of colours by Muni Puṇyavijayajī was known as pothī.²⁵

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²⁵ Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma pp. 119-120.

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Kermes.—The kermes seems to have been used on a small scale in the palm-leaf miniatures from Western India, though in the miniatures on paper its use seems to have been general. Though the Sanskrit texts on painting do not mention kermes as a colouring material, some very interesting information about the kṛmirāga or carmine is obtained from the Jain literature. Commenting on the gāthā 567 of the Bhagavatī Arādhanā, a book of great sanctity to Digambara Jain community, Āśādhara observes that in the Sanskrit commentary and glosses, kṛmirāga was an insect product and was used in dyeing valuable shawls. In the Prākṛt commentary, the following story about its origin is quoted. In the country of the Charmaraṅga Mlechchhas, it was a custom to draw out human blood with leeches and collect it in vessels. After a few days, weevils were produced which yielded the kṛmirāga for dyeing shawls.²⁶ There is another interesting story of a Persian merchant in the Bṛhatkathā-kośa²⁷ in which he buys a girl named Chumkārikā, feeds her for six months, and draws her blood with leeches and produces the kṛmirāga insects thereby.

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²⁶ Hariṣeṇa, Bṛhatkathā-kośa, ed. by A. N. Upadhye, Intro. p. 88, Bombay, 1943.

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²⁷ Ib., 80, 2 ; 102 (1)

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From the foregoing descriptions of the kermes, it is apparent that the production of carmine was a closely guarded secret, and the cock and bull stories about its origin were designedly spread to prevent close enquiries. Another interesting point which emerges from the stories is that the kṛmirāga was not an Indian product and the Charmaraṅga Mlechchhas (probably the people of Samarqand) and the Persians had the monopoly of its production.

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The Arabs called a red insect-dyestuff “kermes.” This Arabic designation was taken over into medieval Latin in the form of the adjective Kermesinum, from which the Italian cremisino, the French Cramoisie and the English Crimson were derived.²⁸

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²⁸ Thompson, loc. cit., p. 113.

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India in the 17th century imported kermes which is called cochineal owing to the confusion of the nomenclatures from Persia, though it does not seem to have been very popular in this country. Sir Thomas Roe stands testimony to this fact. According to him, “Cochineal will never sell as certainty. Few know it. For a pound or two one may give a good price ; but it is no commoditie of use. Those of Sinda only buy it. The Persians bring a little and retaille it at 35 ruppies a great seere. Its restricted use seems due to the fact that it was used for preparing the carmine for painting only and not much could be absorbed that way.

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Fig. 142

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Fig. 143

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Fig. 144

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Fig. 145

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Fig. 146

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The *krimdānā* is a species of insects which breed on cacti. Only the female insects of the species yield a colour known as the *kirmizī* or *gulālī*. The following method is followed in its preparations :—

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The kermes is tied in a piece of cotton cloth with the *Pathānī lodh* and *bujnuk*. It is allowed to soak in water for the whole night. Afterwards, it is boiled on slow fire and then strained. When the water has evaporated the residue should be mixed with very acid curd (*dahī*). If black-shaded carmine is desired, no curd should be added.

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