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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c20.s2: Dyes and Cosmetics

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c20.s2

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English

Contents

Dyes and Cosmetics

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Dyes were used in cosmetics also. Chief among the cosmetics in ancient India was a paste of sandalwood, often coloured with lac and other dyes, smeared over the body and applied in different patterns. Collyrium (eye-salve) or añjana made of dark powdered antimony was very popular. Vermilion (sindura), lac (laksā) and a yellow pigment gorocana were used for marking as tilaka on the forehead. Lips, tips of fingers, toes, the palms and soles of feet were often dyed with red lac. Exposed parts of the body were also often painted with these dyes in different designs (Basham, pp 212-213). Betel leaves were chewed with lime and areca to redden the lips.

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Works like Nātyaśāstra supply funds of information regarding the use of dyes in beautifying the body⁸. Even children used to paint their body with colouring stuffs like extracts of minerals (dhāturasa). Mehndi or henna, a colouring material was used for colouring the palms, soles of feet, nails, hands, etc.

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Henna, well-known by the names mendi, mendhikā, mehndi, marudāṇī(Tamil), gorante (Kannada), all over India is a perennial shrub grown in India and Indian women are fond of making a paste of these leaves with lime for colouring their palms. It leaves a brownish red colour. A reddish dye is extracted from the leaves. The popular mendī or mehndi is identified with madayantikā which was used as an unguent or aṅgarāga⁹. Madayantika in Suśruta Samhitā (Ci, Ch. 25) is described as a dye-stuff to colour the nails (Gode, p 351). In the tantric work Rasārṇava, madayantikā is said to belong to pītavarga, a group of yellow dyes¹⁰. Even though it is said that henna leaves were used in ancient Egypt and Rome for colouring the hair, Indians also were equally acquainted with this colouring material known by the name Mendī eversince the ancient days, especially in South India.

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In Rasaratnakara, a few recipes are given for the preparation of kuṅkuma (used as tilaka). Boiled essence of palāśapuṣpa should be kept in the sun in a wide vessel. In that should be dropped rice powder in the proportion of 1:20. Then lime, of half of the volume, should be mixed and stirred well in bright sunshine. Out of this, pellets can be prepared which will have bright red colour like kuṅkuma. Rice and palāśapuṣpa should be ground well into a soft paste and then dried to make pellets of kuṅkuma. Kuṅkuma can be prepared from gairika and rajanī with soaked wood of neem or coconut shell (RNa, Gandhavāda Sec. 115-119, Gode, p. 91). In a similar manner coloured raṅgoli were also prepared.

Hair dyes

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People in ancient India were highly fashion conscious and they used special dyes to blacken their grey hair. Varāhamihira gives a method of preparing hair dyes from kodrava taṇḍula (grains of harika, Paspalum scrobiculatum) and Loha cūrṇa.(Bṛh. S.77.1-3) In the Bower manuscript, there is a mention of sulphates of copper and iron boiled with the oil of beleric myrobalan as a remedy for turning grey hair into black in a formula for hair-dye (Bower Ms.,Ray, p.68). Even though the manuscript is said to be of the 14th century A.D., the contents should represent knowledge acquired in earlier centuries. P.K. Gode had made mention of a very ancient work Nāvanītaka of 2nd century A.D. in which recipes for hair dyes are given. It is advised that after washing the hair with chebulic and emblic myrobalans, the hair should be anointed with a paste of alambusa (Sphaerantus indicus) and indigo. A paste of indigo, rock salt, long pepper with water is a hair-dye which will turn the grey hair black as antimony. Several such recipes are given to prepare hair dyes (Nāvanītaka, Gode, Vol.I)

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Among the several ingredients prescribed for the preparation of hair-dyes, several plants and minerals are included as colouring agents. Rocana (Bezoar), Kācamācī (Solanum nigrum), nīlikā, nīlī (dyers indigo), abhaya (harītakī), inknut, ayoraja, powder gum, tuttham (copper sulphate), kāsīsam (iron sulphate, green vitriol), nīlotpala (blue lily), jambū (black plum), kakubhaphalam (fruit of Arjuna tree), añjanavarṇa (mud of the colour of añjana), asana kaṣāya (extract or dicoction of asaṇa), mardayati (henna) and a few more.

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Madayantikā, which is mentioned in many ancient texts, is mentioned in Navanītaka as an ingredient for hair-dye. It is identified as mendī also for colouring nails. Hence madayantikā was, no doubt, a plant yielding a dye used in the preparation of cosmetics and hair-dyes during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. Some of the ingredients given above were obviously used as dye- producing agents in hair-dyes. Some among them were used as dye- producing agents in ink manufacture also.

Dyeing agents in ink

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Dyeing agents are required in the preparation of inks also. The relic vase of the stupa at Andher, believed to be of 2nd century B.C. contains inscriptions written with ink on its surface. The inkpot found during the excavations at Taxila was on examination found to contain black carbon mixed with earth and this provides an evidence for the use of carbon ink in ancient India during the Kuṣāṇa period. (Archaeological Report, 1929, 30.209). There are several other archaeological evidences which throw light on the use of ink even before the Christian era. In ancient times, red lead and minium (hīngula) were used as substitutes for ink. The Kharoṣṭi documents from Khatan prove the use of ink in the 1st century A.D. Ancient painted inscriptions are still found fresh in the caves of Ajanta. The Jains have also used coloured inks extensively in their manuscripts. Professional writers were known by the names lipikāra and śāsana lekhaka (Śiv.R. V 15.86). It is well known that scholars and poets were writing on birch bark and palm leaves.

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All these references imply that ink was used extensively for writing and that ink manufacture was in vogue. Ink for writing on bhūrjapatra (birch bark) was made by converting almonds in to charcoal and boiling the coal thus obtained with gomutra (urine bovis). Though nothing much is said about the recipe of ink in any ancient texts, in lexicons like Śabdakalpadruma we come across many synonyms for masi like masijalam, kālī, añjanam, rañjani, malīñambu, etc. We can gather a few details regarding the preparation of ink in ancient India from a few sources of the later medieval period also. Buchanan has recorded ink manufacture in the form of liquid and solid. Lampblack was collected from earthen lamps of linseed oil and was mixed with the gum of Mimosa indica and a little water and rubbed in an iron mortar for three hours. Gall nuts were infused in the water and strained infusion was added to the rubbed material. After rubbing for six hours, the pot was kept in sunshine till they reached the consistency to make small lumps which were again dried in the sun (Ray, pp. 235- 36; Gode, pp.24-25). Even today lampblack is used as an essential ingredient for ink with an addition of gum, inknuts, sugar, etc.

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Jain texts contain preparation of different inks for writing on paper and on palm leaves. The former is made by mixing a coffee coloured infusion of roasted rice with lampblack and then adding sugar and sometimes juice of a plant called kesurte. For the other type also juice of kesurte was used with a dicoction of wheat flour. Since such inks are completely free from mineral substance, strong acids do not injure the substance of the paper and hence the writing never fades and it retains the gloss also.

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Generally the dye-stuffs producing black and red colour were used in preparation of inks. Sometimes haritāla (yellow orpiment) also was used. The use of haritala was very common in old manuscripts for correction of letters or deletion. Clothes were marked with marking inks known as dhoby's ink prepared generally from organic dyes like ink nuts etc. free from carbon.

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Rasaratnākara of Nityanāthasiddha of about 1200 A.D. gives recipes for preparing ink for writing on palm leaves and birch barks. The ingredients prescribed are abhaya (haritākī, chebulic myrobalan), āmalaka (Emblic myrobalan), nīlikā (dyer's indigo), kāsīsam (Green vitriol), vibhītaka (Beleric myrobalan), kārṣṇayam (black iron), sahacarapatram (Justicia ecbolium), oil of vibhitaka, flowers of sahacara, seeds of mango, asanakusuma (flowers of kino tree), lohacūrṇam (powder of iron), extract of decoction of asana, etc. Most of the above ingredients are no doubt dye-producing agents used in the preparation of inks of various colours (Ray, p.236)

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Several literary works of ancient India contain many references to the use of cloth for writing, particularly for writing letters. Valkalapaṭṭikā or piece of bark garment was used for writing purposes. Passages from kādambarī of Bana refer to this and also to the use of fine white cotton stuff. The main ingredients that are mentioned in these passages are the extracts of leaves of tamāla tree mixed with the fragrant ichor of elephant and a dark blue dye.¹¹

Other uses

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Ancient Indians knew the technique of adding kunkuma (saffron) dye to karpūra or camphor powder by placing the camphor powder in a crucible after treating it with kunkuma (Siv.R. VI. 25.50,51) In those days, drinks and sweets were also covered by adding approved colouring agents. We get a suggestion of this in Sivatattvaratnākara which gives a method of colouring curds (Siv. R. VI. 19.234-127).

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From the various references mentioned above from ancient and medieval texts, it becomes clear that along with the art of spinning and weaving, the secondary art of dyeing also flourished in Ancient India. Most of the colouring substances were obtained from vegetable sources like roots, trunks, barks, leaves. flowers and fruits.

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The dyers' class known by the name *rangakāraka* made their own colours and solutions from the raw materials. Generally, dye-producing vegetable substances were diluted in water in the form of powder, juice or lump and then boiled for preparation of dyes. Dyestuffs from animal sources were obtained by soaking the insects in water and squeezing them. Mineral colours were obtained by means of simple chemical processes.

Metals and Minerals

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At the beginning, even though natural organic and plant materials were used as dyes, in the course of the Gupta Age, as Tantric cult developed and alchemical techniques were practised, dyes also were prepared from minerals and other substances by means of several chemical processes. The art of dyeing, in this manner, has indirectly helped the development of chemistry in ancient India.

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Mineral dyes were utilized in colouring cotton, wool, linen, silk, cloth of natural fibres, ink, hair, cosmetics etc. Many soluble dyes were converted into pigments by forming insoluble salts for use in paints, inks etc. Many works of the Tantric period contain information on dyes being utilized in colouring metals also.

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In the texts dealing with alchemy and allied topics of ancient and middle ages we come across words like *loharañjaka*, *rasarañjaka*, *sūtarañjaka* etc¹². It is quite probable that in 4th or 5th century A.D., people were efficient in the techniques of colouring metals and minerals for several purposes. *Rasārṇava*, a tantric work says, "Iron, lead and copper are coloured by means of calamine - the whole thing turns into gold"¹³. *Rasaka* (calamine) is of three kinds, of the colour of the earth, of the colour of stones and of the appearance of treacle. *Rasaka* mixed with certain organic matters and roasted three times with copper converts the copper into a golden stuff. To obtain vermilion (*sindura*) of the colour of rising sun, it is advised that ash of mercury and sulphur of equal weights should be rubbed and roasted in a covered crucible. Blue vitriol (*tuttham*) which is of the colour of the neck of peacock, saffron (*kunkumam*), calamine (*rasaka*) and also the excreta of a young calf, the poisons (*visa halahala*), powdered *Plumbago zeylanica*, (*raktacitracūrṇa*), all in equal proportions should be rubbed with acids and dried in shade.

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Then adding honey to the mixture it should be smeared on a thin sheet of lead. When roasted in a covered crucible, the lead gets a beautiful colour fit to be used for bedecking gods (*Rṇv* VII.31-34; XIV.81; XVII. 70.74; Ray, pp 138-139).

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Apart from the Sanskrit texts dealing with alchemy in ancient India, a few Tibetan texts also furnish some information on the chemical process of colouring metals with organic and inorganic dye-stuffs. *Bilva* (wood apple), *dāḍima* (pomegranate) and a special kind of dye (*smantshos*) are to be burnt and mixed with sour wine in a copper pot for three days. In this manner, a paint will be prepared which should be applied twenty one times to a thin piece of iron and it becomes copper (copper coloured) [*Dhātuvāda*, 2,3, vide Ray] for Extracts.

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A plant named *kuṣṭha* (*Costus speciosa*) grown in the Himalayas are often mentioned in ancient Indian medical texts. It is said that the leaves of this plant drop a fluid towards the earth having a colour like bright gold. This has a dyeing effect when comes into contact with the ashes of pure lead and quicksilver. It turns copper mixed with silver into a golden material (*Dhātuvāda* 12). *Hingula* alum, blue vitriol etc. are said to be favourable for importing colour to quick-silver (*Śiv. R.* VI. 15.50-51; *Rhr*, Pātala VIII). To brighten the blue tinge of the precious stone *nila* (sapphire), it is said that the gem should be placed in a bronze vessel filled with indigo juice mixed with the juice of citrus fruit (*Śiv. R.* VI. 17.112)

Linked texts (11)