The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

Vertically oriented book page with Persian script in the upper two thirds and a painting depicting Khujasta, a woman with light skin tone reaching out to a parrot standing on top of a rectangular cage. On our left sits a bed with a rectangular canopy against a solid green backdrop while Khujasta and the bird stand against a scarlet red background. Khujasta wears blue trousers, a gold, red, and blue striped top, and beaded jewelry.

The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the forty-seventh night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-seventh 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: 4.8 x 10.2 cm (1 7/8 x 4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.300.b
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

The flat planes of bold color were favored by Indian artists before the time of Akbar.

Description

Against a brightly colored red and green background, Khujasta meets with Tuti the talking parrot. In order to keep her from leaving to visit her lover, the parrot tells Khujasta a moralizing story about four friends who were given magical shells by a wise man.
  • ?–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.
  • Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 2025-January 11, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the forty-seventh night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-seventh Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.300.b