The false Mansur punished before the judge and expelled from the city, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventeenth 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 courtroom: a judge in red robes sits on a platform, a turbaned man and woman stand before him, and guards drag a second man away by his hair, his turban unraveling. This painting comes from a book of parrot tales told to a Mughal emperor. The story is about a merchant tricked by an imposter—here, the real merchant and his wife watch as the fake is punished. The bright colors and tiny details show how people dressed and acted in 1500s India. To see more paintings like this, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
