Gold and silver inks are prepared from a gold and silver Lamina (વરખ/वर्ख). The process for making the gold and silver inks is somewhat different than the other inks. To begin with, the lamina is mixed vigorously with a natural glue paste and sugar water inside a lukewarm pot. After some time when the pot becomes cold, the residue settles into the bottom, and water floats above it. The water is then carefully drained out in such a manner that the golden/silver mixture is not be washed away with the excess of water. This process is repeated 3–4 times, ensuring that the glue textured gold/silver coloured paste is retained in the pot.

The process for making these inks was laborious and time consuming; added to the fact that the raw materials were very costly. This made golden/silver inks very expensive and therefore, their use was limited to border decorations, important illustrations or front page or chapter titles. The Kalpasutra manuscript was frequently illustrated with golden and silver colour inks. These inks sometimes were used for writing the texts. The inks were used on the darkest background possible in order to achieve a higher contrast. These inks shine or glow even in low light. Thus, it was possible to read and recite manuscripts that written with golden/silver inks, at night during the ten-day festival of Paryushana.



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