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Kaiwan, Latif, and Sharif arrive at a house of worship, where they seek help from Khurshid who has become a mystical healer, from a Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-second Night

Unknown

1560

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Mughal Painting Renaissance Renaissance Religious

Dominant colour

Kaiwan, Latif, and Sharif arrive at a house of worship, where they seek help from Khurshid who has become a mystical healer, from a Tuti-Nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-second Night is a 1560 unspecified by Unknown, a Mughal Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1560 · Mughal Painting
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see three sick men kneeling before a woman in a blue robe who sits like a holy man. One man is blind, one has lost a hand, and the third shakes with palsy. This painting is from a book of parrot tales told to Emperor Akbar. The woman, Khurshid, was wronged by these men and now heals them as penance. Her shaved head and robes show she’s taken on a spiritual role. To see more stories like this, look up subject: mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605).

The story of this work

Overview

Khurshid, kneeling on the right in the blue dress and orange cloak, has shaved her head and donned the robes of a holy man. A group of supplicants sit behind her. Below, the three men who wronged her seek cures for their ailments: Kaiwan holding a staff, has gone blind, Sharif has lost a hand to leprosy, and Latif has developed a palsy.