Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c77.95

v2.c77.95

**Indigo (nil)**—“This colour was manufactured in India in antiquity and largely exported to Greece and Rome. It is also mentioned in the Viṣṇudharmottara, III, 40, 26, as one of the colouring materials. The colour is extracted from certain plant known in modern botany as indigo-ferae. In the beginning it seems to have been largely used for dyeing cloth but later on, specially in the painting of the Akbar school, it was used as a colour.