The court of the Raja of Ujjain, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-sixth Night
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a crowded royal court: turbaned nobles, musicians, and a strange creature with hooves, a beak, and horns standing before a raja on a golden throne. The animal is from a story told by a parrot to keep a queen from sneaking out at night. The artist mixed Persian, Indian, and European ideas—cloven hooves look like something from a griffin, but the fur is drawn to look impossibly soft. To see more paintings like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
