A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c14.s4.7

c14.s4.7

The paintings were executed on a carefully prepared surface formed by the application of fine lime-plaster from a quarter to half an inch thick laid on a bed about half an inch in thickness, composed of tempered clay mixed with kaolin, and strengthened by the admixture of rice-husks, with, perhaps, some cocoa-nut fibre. Mr. Bell believes that the pictures were wrought in tempera on a dry surface. The process, possibly, did not differ much from that used at Ajaṇṭā. Except that Fig. 14 in 'pocket B' has a black background, the range of colours is confined to three—red, yellow, and green. The blues, so conspicuous at Ajaṇṭā and Bāgh, are absent.