The Raja’s daughter and her lover stoned to death for adultery, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-Second Night (c. 1560): Art, History and Details

The Raja’s daughter and her lover stoned to death for adultery, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-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:

In this gory scene, the body of the raja’s daughter lies crumbled and bloody at her lover’s side. He sits resolutely facing his executioners with his hair disheveled and a pained expression on his face. The couple is surrounded by a group of men who wield stones in their raised hands.

Object facts

• Title: The Raja’s daughter and her lover stoned to death for adultery, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-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: 11.3 x 10.5 cm (4 7/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1962.279.272.b

A detail from the museum

The woman’s treachery was predicted from birth.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

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.