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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
67
crude cinnabar is properly lavigated in a mortar with sugared water or lime juice. When cinnabar settles down the yellowish water is carefully drained off. For successful proccurement of this pigment, this process is repeated at least 15 times to obtain purest cinnabar. It is again levigated with sugared water or lime juice, throughly mixed and formed in to tablets for use.
From the list of colour published by Muni Punyavijayaji lac-dye or alta was used as red and was mixed with other colours to obtain several shades. Long lists are given by him in the above publication which describe shades and subshades of colours.
Although vermilion was useful and much dersired colour for a variety of uses among the painters and patrons, it failed to produce the depth, and transparancy, desired. Therefore to obtain dark and warm reds, painters invariably mixed organic colours like red lake etc. with vermilion. The word lake has been derived from lak i. e. shellac and shellac is laksharasa in sanskrit. Which is procduced in the following manner. A kind of dark red insect encrustation found sticking to smaller branches of certain trees like pipal etc. is collected and stored in glass containers which are then kept in the hot sun during summer months. The shellac melts and settles down while the watery red
20.
ibid P. 79.
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