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Your galleryThe Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Sixth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
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Find the green parrot in its gold cage hanging in the window, then Khujasta’s raised hand and the golden carpet spread beneath the couch.
Many pages of the Tuti-nama show the parrot addressing Khujasta as a night begins. On the sixth night Tuti begins the tale of seven men who all lost their hearts to a woman’s statue that came alive. The Persian words in the lower margin name Dasavanta, a mural painter whom Akbar discovered and had trained in the royal workshop. The Cleveland Museum of Art likens the gold carpet and the soft clumps of grass to those on another of his pages.
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper · Painting only: 8.9 x 10.6 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Sixth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
- Artist
- Dasavanta (Indian)
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting only: 8.9 x 10.6 cm (3 1/2 x 4 3/16 in.); Overall: 20 x 14.3 cm (7 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.