The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the forty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-first Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the forty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-first 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:

On the forty-first of fifty-two nights, Khujasta consults Tuti the parrot for advice on how to balance her lover’s wishes with her vow of marriage. Tuti, perched atop his cage, responds by telling her a story about a donkey who was punished for singing too brazenly.

Object facts

• Title: The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the forty-first night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-first 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: 9.8 x 10 cm (3 7/8 x 3 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.263.a

A detail from the museum

Khujasta has braided jasmine flowers into her hair.

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.