Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page

The miniature from the Tuti-nama manuscript circulated widely across Mughal elite circles in the mid-16th century and later influenced European travelers' accounts of Indian storytelling traditions. Its compositional style informed later Persianate miniature workshops in Rajasthan during the 17th century, particularly in depictions of didactic animal fables. Contemporary scholarship highlights its role in shaping narrative visual grammar within Indo-Persian book arts, though specific attribution remains debated among researchers.

The work is held in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection, where it is catalogued as part of their South Asian manuscript holdings.

This object is a single leaf from a manuscript titled Tales of a Parrot (Tuti‑nama). The page consists of densely written black ink script arranged in orderly lines across the surface, framed by a narrow red margin. The support is paper that has acquired a soft, aged patina, and the sheet contains no illustrative imagery, only the continuous text.

The calligraphy displays a careful, uniform hand, suggesting a professional scribe’s involvement. Black iron‑gall ink fills the page in tight, regular columns, while a thin red pigment outlines the margins, providing a subtle decorative frame without disrupting the textual focus.