2-736-630 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): First night: Khujasta kills the pet myna who advises her not to be unfaithful to Maymun, her husband, c. 1560. This first painting from Akbar’s Tuti-nama depicts a scene from the book’s frame story. Using a narrative device common in pre-Mughal India, the painting shows three different moments of time: Maymun sailing away on a merchant ship; his wife, Khujasta, on the roof of her house gesturing to, as the story tells us, a prince on the street below, with whom she falls in love; and Khujasta in the courtyard of her home having dashed the pet myna bird to the floor in anger. An exceptionally important manuscript, the Tuti-nama was painted by Indian artists, many of whom were learning to work in a Persian book format for the first time. Stylistic features of pre-Mughal Indian painting appear throughout the manuscript, such as the flat red floor and the white-on- black horizontal parapet.