The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 23, 2025

The king dreams of a lady, the personification of wealth, departing from him on account of his purchasing a bowl and a staff from a yogi, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-sixth Night

c. 1560

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.1 x 10.2 cm (4 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.239.b
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The king experiences three more dreams, representing his strength, reason, and good deeds.

Description

The sleeping king lies sprawled across a bed with the bowl and staff at his side. These inauspicious purchases represent his impending loss of wealth. He allows the woman to leave and, upon waking, finds that all of his possessions have disappeared.
  • ?–1959
    Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD
    1959–1962?
    (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA)
    1959?–1962
    (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry)
    1962–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (May 16, 1881–September 26, 1958) was an American diplomat and politician, who served in the administrations of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long is largely remembered for his obstructionist role as the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for granting refugee visas during World War II. His interests included the collection of antiques, paintings and American ship models. He maintained a stable of Thoroughbred race horses and was a director of the Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, and he enjoyed fox hunting, fishing, and sailing.
  • Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. pp. 79, 138
  • Yoga: The Art of Transformation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 22-September 7, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=The king dreams of a lady, the personification of wealth, departing from him on account of his purchasing a bowl and a staff from a yogi, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-sixth Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=23 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.239.b