The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented painting with scenes broken across two rectangles like floors in a building topped with three tent-like striped coverings. In the upper room, two men flank a seated central man against a beige background. In the lower, a man and woman sit facing each other against a light green background. All are shown in profile and have light skin tones. They are surrounded by repeated gold vine motifs.

A traveler persuades Lorik to return home (top); Chanda objects (bottom), from a Chandayana (Story of Chanda)

c. 1540

Sultanate India

gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Image: 19.7 x 14 cm (7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.); Overall: 25.5 x 20 cm (10 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
Gift of D. J. R. Ushikubo, The John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, and Bequest of James Parmelee by exchange 1981.55
Location: 242B Indian Painting

Description

Chanda is the heroine of a Sufi romance. The Sufis are a mystical branch of Islam whose followers cultivate love for the divine. This painting is from a dispersed manuscript of the Chandayana painted in a style that was an important source for Mughal painting. Its artists integrated Persian colors and delicate vine motifs with figures presented in profile, within flat, compartmentalized registers, which are horizontal divisions of space. The drama of their interactions is conveyed by means of animated gestures.
  • 1981–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1981.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (February 1982): 39–82. Reproduced: p. 69; Mentioned: p. 83, no. 138 www.jstor.org
    Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 7
    Rice, Yael. The Brush of Insight: Artists and Agency at the Mughal Court. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 57, fig. 2.4
  • Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 2025-January 11, 2026).
    The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
  • {{cite web|title=A traveler persuades Lorik to return home (top); Chanda objects (bottom), from a Chandayana (Story of Chanda)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1540|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1981.55