The Indian painters had identified four different kinds of white; sveta which is like the color of pearl, sukla which is of conch shell, dhavala, of silver or milk and avadata like that of star.
Red: Red was one of the predominant colors used in the paintings. The different shades of red known to the painters were; crimson, blood red, Venetian red. The source of red color was red lead, red ochre and juice of lac.
Yellow: The color yellow is derived from orpiment. Four distinctive shades of yellow have been identified svarna (golden), pisanga (tawny), pitta (yellow) and harita (green).
Black: The color black or krsna was derived from carbon and lampblack. Four shades of black, which were popular with the painters, were nila (blue), syama (forest crow), kala (peacock) and krsna (the color of the wing of a black bee).
Blue: Blue is one of the favorite colors of Indian painters. Bharata in his Natyasastra recommends blue as the strongest of all colors. The texts mention nila (indigo) or rajavarta (lapis lazuli) as source of blue color.
Indian painters combined primary colors to produce beautiful hues and mixed colors. The ancient texts provide information on mixed colors. It is interesting to note that Natyasastra of Bharata lists the following secondary (upavarna) colors; combination of white and blue in equal proportions results in pigeon gray, amalgamation of white and red in equal proportions brings in lotus hue, blend of yellow and blue brings in green color, mixture of blue and red gives purple color while intermingling of red and yellow in equal proportion yields a fair color.
Bharata also provides reference to the tertiary and quaternary colors and notes that in the combination colors the mood of the strongest color would be reflected.
Besides Natyasastra, other sources like Manasollasa, Silparatna and Kasyapasila also list mixed colors. The Indian painters evolved a set of standardized rules for deriving the primary and secondary colors.
Metallic Colors:
The Silpa texts mention the use of metallic colors like gold, silver, copper and bronze. The texts mention that the metal should be either thinned into leaves or made liquid by chemical treatment before they are applied for painting.
The metallic colors were not used on large scale, their use was limited in miniatures mainly due to the complicated process of preparation and for the cost they involved.
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