2-736-683 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): Seventh night: The parrot addresses Khujasta at the beginning of the seventh night, c. 1560. Every night for 52 nights the sly domesticated parrot encourages his master’s wife Khujasta to meet her lover under cover of darkness. Just before she leaves, the parrot mentions a topic from a tantalizing tale; she becomes so curious that she cannot go out before hearing the whole story. By the time the story ends, dawn breaks, and it is too late for her to go out unnoticed. The artist who painted this page was still firmly entrenched in the idioms of pre-Mughal painting.