History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c20.s3.t1: Pottery Painting
History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c20.s3.t1
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Pottery Painting
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Pottery and pottery-painting were practised in India ever since the dawn of civilisation. People in very ancient settlements were well-acquainted with the art of making potteries of burnt clay and painting various designs on them. A large variety of ochres, haematites, pigments and organic colours were used by potters for slipping and painting the pots.
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Archaeologists are of the opinion that various earliest settlements of pre-historic India that have been unearthed represent independent cultures of their own and a classification has been made on the basis of techniques employed in pottery painting. From this is implied that these inhabitants of very early settlements were well-acquainted with the techniques related to pottery making and painting which involved the use of varied pigments for slipping and painting the clay pots.
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The art of painted and polychrome pottery had also developed. Actually, this knowledge of the prehistoric man in making use of different dyes and pigments to beautify objects like potteries and also the simple techniques he adopted for that purpose led to the development of paint technology in India.
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Regarding the pre-historic cultures, archaeologists have given a broad classification as Buff-ware culture and Red-ware culture based on the colours of the potteries found in those settlements. The potteries of the former culture have a buff-body painted over with designs in a purplish brown or black paint. The Amrinal pottery body, generally, is a very fine buff or pink and white slip is frequently applied as a background for painting designs. Polychromic pottery vessels with red, blue, green and yellow paint were also found in this settlement.
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Another series of sites of settlements of pre-historic India representing the Kulli culture is characterized by its painted pottery styles. Clay figurines also have been found here. The painting of the pottery body here is generally of black colour with an occasional use of red or white colour on which designs are also painted.
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The Zhob red-ware culture show more or less a distinctive painted pottery style with a red pottery body. The painting is stylish with red and black designs on the red body of the pots (Ray, pp.1-2).
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During Indus valley civilization potteries were produced on a mass scale on potters' wheel. Though the pottery is for the most part plain, decorated and painted potteries were also made by the Harappan workers. Black geometrical designs were painted on a deep lustrous slip.
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This characteristic of 'red and black' pottery of Harappan civilization is easily recognizable. A few polychrome potteries that have also been unearthed in these sites are painted in green and red on a buff slip. Chemical analysis has revealed that red or solomon colours in these objects are due to the presence of iron components in the clay. The slip of bright red colour found on some potteries is due to ferric oxide. The black and chocolate designs that are found painted on the body owe their colour to oxides of manganese. The colouring agents used by the Indus valley people are used even today by potters. Many of the ancient techniques of selecting and applying colouring materials have come down to the present time also.
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A large variety of ochres, haematites, pigments and organic colours were used by the potters of ancient India as they are done today. As a rule, slip treatment also was given to the pots before they were fired. Slipping serves two purposes it helps in closing the pores and secondly, it provides smooth surfaces helpful in painting a design on them. Slipping was done by dipping the pot after burnishing in a solution or by painting with a solution formed by the finest portion of the clay used for making the pot or of any suitable material. For slip preparation also ochres, pigments or clay were considered as suitable materials.
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The colours of slips used at Mohenjo-daro were buff, cream, pink and red. The first two seem to be natural ones. Lighter pink shades are attributed generally to traces of iron in the clay which on firing threw a pink colour. But the darker pink shades seem to have been produced by the addition of a slight red colouring. Red slips were produced by mixing red ochres with the clay or by using red ochre itself in solution as a slip. Dark red colour of the slips seems to have been derived by the use of red oxide in the slip (Jaggi,I,p. 100). The colours of these slips neither vanish nor fade in firing.
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As of today, in ancient India potters were preparing slips with red or yellow ochres which when applied emit a lustre on the surface. For black and chocolate shades, a manganiferous haematite. was used. Different varieties of ochres and haematites, which are known today by different local names in different parts of India, were made use of for colouring slips, like geru rangamati, dhau, multānimatti, etc. It is said that the manganese oxides frequently associated with ferric oxide give a pure black colour when rich in manganese. If iron in the mixture preponderates it gives a chocolate colour.
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Excavations at Sanci, Taxila and other places also have revealed further information regarding the character of pottery in India from about 500 B.C. to 100 B.C. The body of the potteries of these different sites consist of a finely levigated clay, usually grey but sometimes reddish in sections. This is covered with a brilliantly burnished slip having the quality of a glaze, with colours from jet black to grey, metallic steel blue occasionally varied with reddish brown patches.
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In this context, it is noteworthy that the polished stone surfaces of many of the Sanci stupas were reddened with a translucent stain which has the advantage of not obscuring the texture of the stone or the delicate details of the carvings. Sanci paintings on walls have been found to be made by mixing red ochre with lime-wash to give red or *geruka* (brownish yellow) colour (Ray, pp. 77-78). Red lead or minium has also been found as an ingredient for the application of red paint. Excavations at Arikamedu in the 1st and 2nd century A.D. have brought out potteries with burnished slips and some of them are glazed. The polished bright red slip has been identified as haematite. A slip of ferruginous clay was also applied to some (Ray, p. 83)
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The potteries unearthed from the pre-historic sites like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and later on at Sanci and other places reveal the fact that people of these ancient days were acquainted with the properties of different colouring materials and pigments. Different varieties of ochres and haematities were used to prepare slips of different shades. The methods of slip preparation also varied from place to place. Most of the potteries found in these settlements were also painted. The technique of painting pots before firing and also painting designs on them after firing was in vogue. Mostly organic colours were used to paint the surfaces. For white pigment, lime, limestone, chalk and rice powder were used. To prepare black pigment, burnt cocoanut shell powder, soot, powdered charcoal, black iron oxide etc. were used.
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During Vedic times and later on, ritual pots were painted with floral and geometrical designs in red, yellow blue and green colours. Vermilion (mercuric sulphide) or *dhau* (ruddle) was used from red pigment, yellow colour was obtained from turmeric or from yellow earth (a kind of ochre), blue from indigo, green from leaves, of particular trees and iron sulphate. Grey was prepared from a kind of haematite, orange pigments were obtained by mixing red and yellow colours. Copper sulphate was mixed with red pigment to obtain purple pigment. Usually these pigments were prepared in plain water.
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Since different types of ochres, haematites, and local mud etc. were used for slips and also for painting the potteries, it is evident that methods like filtration, decantation, rubbing on a slab of granite with water, boiling with some other ingredients like calcium, *khadira* (catechu), soda etc., collecting barks and leaves from particular trees and allowing them to sour by adding rice starch etc. were adopted in preparing the pigments.
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Archaeologists have unearthed another important variety of pottery from the ancient Harappan sites known as faience. It is a vitreous substance with a glazy surface often coloured by the addition of suitable mineral matters (Ray, p.12).
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The painted grey-ware pottery is also well known from 100-400 B.C. approx. It is a thin grey deluxe ware, wheel made, well-burnt, glossy and painted with many decorative motifs.