The king gives his daughter in marriage to the pious man’s son, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The king gives his daughter in marriage to the pious man’s son, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second 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 king sits on his throne at the center of his bustling court. On the right, two musicians play instruments while other servants attend to the royal celebration. The pious man’s son, seated on the left, has successfully killed the dragon that menaced the king’s lands. As a reward, he is married to the king’s daughter and named vice-regent.

Object facts

• Title: The king gives his daughter in marriage to the pious man’s son, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second 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: 9.1 x 9.9 cm (3 9/16 x 3 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.339.a

A detail from the museum

The musicians play a harp and a tambourine.

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.

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.