Abstract
This paper begins with an examination of early Indian speculation about colors, their number, their use, and their significance. It ranges widely from the Upaniṣads to the Nāṭyaśāstra, from Śvetāmbara Jain canonical texts to Buddhaghosa’s treatise on meditation, the Visuddhimagga, from purāṇas to technical treatises on painting. It turns then to examine how select Jain and Buddhist texts used color in two important scenarios, descriptions of the setting for events and the person of the Jina/Buddha. In the concluding reflections, I compare textual practices with a few examples from the visual record to ask what role if any the colors specified in a story might have played in the choices made by an artist.
Highlights
This paper begins with an examination of early Indian speculation about colors, their number, their use, and their significance
I wanted to suggest that the vibrancy and motion in the painting owe much to the skillful use of color
As our eyes move through the additional lines created by the colors, the entire scene seems to be animated
Summary
I begin this essay with two images of Avalokiteśvara, close to each other in date, a sculpture from the 11th c. in the Cleveland Museum of art, Figure 1, and a folio from a 12th century manuscript of the. The Cleveland image shows traces of its original paint. Both images, of very different size, in completely different media, rely on angular lines and curves to convey movement and create a rich and complex tableau. As our eyes move through the additional lines created by the colors, the entire scene seems to be animated. Returning to the sculpture, where light and shadow must replace color, we can only wonder what it might have been like with its original paint. This paper was originally delivered at a symposium, Indian Buddhist Narrative: Text and Image, at New College, Edinburgh, September 2019.
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