The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Vertically oriented book page with Persian script in the upper fourth and a painting below depicting figures with lights skin tones. In a room in the lower left, against a red backdrop, a woman stands, a blue-black bird at her feet, a bed on our right. Above the walls, a person looks over from a hut and a boat filled with people rocks over the waves. The paint has flaked away at several points.

Khujasta kills the pet mynah who advises her not to be unfaithful to Maymun, her husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of the Parrot): First Night

c. 1560

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 19.9 x 14.2 cm (7 13/16 x 5 9/16 in.); Painting only: 12.9 x 10.5 cm (5 1/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1962.279.8.a
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Did You Know?

Merchant ships brave treacherous waters; a distant city appears in the upper left.

Description

The first illustration of the Cleveland Tuti-Nama shows the merchant departing and his wife killing the mynah bird that tells her not to commit adultery. The bright red background and composition are Indian, while the delicacy of drawing is Persian, and the atmospheric effects in the upper left are a Mughal development.
  • ?–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, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976. pp. 83-84
    Seyller, John. “Overpainting in the Cleveland T̤ūtīnāma.” Artibus Asiae 52, no. 3/4 (1992): 283-318. p. 309 www.jstor.org
  • Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 2025-January 11, 2026).
    Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 20-August 18, 2004).
    Indian Miniature Rotation (Gallery 115). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 4-August 5, 2003).
  • {{cite web|title=Khujasta kills the pet mynah who advises her not to be unfaithful to Maymun, her husband, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of the Parrot): First Night|url=false|author=|year=c. 1560|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.279.8.a