Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s7.t5.6

c8.s7.t5.6

Besides the jeweller, the goldsmith and the diamond-cutter, the dyer of clothes (*rañjaka*) also was an artisan who appears to have access to the inner apartments of the *nāgaraka*'s house and to take orders from the ladies direct. Blue and orange (colour of the *kusumbha* flower) seem to be the dyes most fashionable; the dyer is by preference called the *nīlikusumbharañjaka*. The yellow dye was also perhaps generally used, though the dye obtained from turmeric (*haridrā*) provides a proverbial expression for denoting fickle, impermanent affection.⁵ Sundarī, Nanda's beloved wife, is described as weaving a garment of the colour of the ruby (*padmarāga*) which is no doubt the same as the *kusumbha* colour of Vātsyāyana, and in the *Buddhacarita* a lady is represented as wearing a blue dress.¹ Earlier still, these very same dyes appear to have been in favour. The noble Licchavi youths who went out of Vesālī to pay their respects to the great Buddha are described in the *Mahāvagga* as wearing blue, red and yellow robes besides white ones; the same work enumerates a number of other colours being used by people living in the enjoyments of the world, though even there the blue, yellow and red are given the first place.² The economic housewife is described by Vātsyāyana as getting the rejected clothes of her husband cleaned and redyed and then presenting them to the servants.³