Verse Text
śvetaś citro ’ruṇaḥ śoṇaḥ śyāmaḥ pāṇḍura-piṅgalau |
gauro dhūmras tathā raktaḥ kālo nītaḥ kramād amī ||118||
Translation
The twelve rasas have twelve colors as follows: white (śānta), multi-colored (prīti), orange (preyān or sakhya), [Note: Aruṇa (color of the dawn) could also be pink.] crimson (vatsala), indigo (madhura), light yellow (hāsya), yellow or green (adbhuta), [Note: Bharata Muni gives pīta or yellow for adbhuta-rasa. The word used here is piṅgala which can mean yellow or green.] gold (vīra), [Note: Gaura can mean gold, white, yellow or red as well, but white, yellow and red have been used for other rasas.] purple (karuṇa), red (raudra), black (bhayānaka) and blue (bībhatsa).
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
In this verse the colors are assigned according to poetic conventions such as assigning the color white to fame. One can assign personalities (with colors) to the rasas just as personalities like Candra are assigned to personify the mind.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
… each of which has a different color. The colors are white, multicolored, orange, red, light green, gray, yellow, off-whitish, smoky, pink, black and cloudy.