The Brahman gambler sees the daughter of the king of the jinns in a pit together with an old man and a cauldron of boiling oil, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot: Seventh Night)
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
A man in rags looks down into a pit cut open like a dollhouse. Inside, a young woman hands him two gold bracelets while an old man tends a fire under a boiling cauldron. The story comes from a book of parrot tales read aloud at the Mughal court. The artist shows the pit in cross-section so we can see every layer—smoke, oil, and the woman’s secret gift. To see more paintings like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
