History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c20.18

v1.c20.18

Śivatattvaratnākara, an encyclopaedic work of the 17th century is a storehouse of information related to ancient Indian culture. We get information about different colours in which clothes were dyed. People were fond of wearing cotton, silken and woolen clothes collected from different parts of the country dyed in different colours like blue, black, smoky shade (grey), rosy pink, violet like jambu fruits³. Clothes were made beautiful with lots of attractive designs of animals and birds and also with different patterns of lines and dots in red, black, yellow and green colours. Clothes were dyed in mañjiṣṭhā, lākṣā, sindura, haridrā, nīlī, abhaya, (extract of a yellow myrobalan tree),etc⁴. Kings were advised to wear parrot green and peacock blue coloured silken and cotton clothes in spring season, white in summer, red woolen clothes dyed in mañjiṣṭhā in rainy season. Beautiful pink and grey clothes of very fine quality should be worn in autumn. In winter and during travel, clothes dyed in kusumbha and lākṣā should be selected. From these references and also those in other texts like Abhilasitārtha Cintāmaṇi of Someśvara of the 12th century, we can gather that all types of clothes like woolen, silken, fur and even those made from plant fibres were dyed in different pleasing colours.