The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) (c. 1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

When like a red-turbaned king the sun disappeared under the canopy in the west and like a silver-robed monarch the moon appeared on the throne in the east, Khujasta went to ask Tuti’s permission to leave. The parrot replied that his mistress Khujasta should devote herself to her obligations of propriety, just like the three extraordinary companions of the prince. Her interest piqued, Khujasta asked Tuti to tell her about them. He then launched into a story about the benefits of loyalty and generosity that lasted all night.

Object facts

• Title: The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
• 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: 7.9 x 10.2 cm (3 1/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.130.b

A detail from the museum

The medallion pattern of Khujasta’s skirt is a convention of an earlier painting style

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318.

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.