The creatures of the sea are asked by the king of the Ocean to take a message to the Brahman, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eleventh Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The creatures of the sea are asked by the king of the Ocean to take a message to the Brahman, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eleventh Night (c. 1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The creatures of the sea, by turn, refuse to convey the king of the ocean’s acceptance of the wedding invitation to the Brahman. The sea dragon in the upper right is concerned that he will frighten people, so he volunteered the whale. The whale said that he has no legs to walk on land, so volunteered the turtle. The turtle said he would be too slow and would never make it on time. The crab feared he would not be taken seriously, and the crocodile said that he is too rough and vulgar for the job. The frog agreed to go.

Object facts

• Title: The creatures of the sea are asked by the king of the Ocean to take a message to the Brahman, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eleventh Night
• Date: c. 1560
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 7.3 x 10.1 cm (2 7/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.89.b

A detail from the museum

The sea dragon is chief of the many species under the Ocean King’s command.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.
• Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, and Muhammed Ahmed Simsar. Tales of a Parrot = The Cleveland Museum of Art's Ṭūṭīnāma. Cleveland: The Museum, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.