The Raja of Ujjain, who is traveling in the guise of a yogi, meets two brothers who ask him to equitably partition their father’s possession, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-sixth Night (c

The Raja of Ujjain, who is traveling in the guise of a yogi, meets two brothers who ask him to equitably partition their father’s possession, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-sixth 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 raja, wearing a leopard print cape around his shoulders, sits with the brothers at the edge of a pool. Four magical objects, a cloak, a blanket, shoes, and a sword, lie on the ground between them. Under the pretense of dividing the goods, the raja distracts the brothers and steals their inheritance.

Object facts

• Title: The Raja of Ujjain, who is traveling in the guise of a yogi, meets two brothers who ask him to equitably partition their father’s possession, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-sixth 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: 12.4 x 10.2 cm (4 7/8 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.293.b

A detail from the museum

Ducks, fish, a turtle, and a crocodile swim in the waters of the pool.

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.