The parrot mother cautions her young on the danger of playing with foxes, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night

Also known as: Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): Fifth night: The parrot mother cautions her young on the danger of playing with foxes

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About the Artwork

One night the parrot Tuti tells Khujasta that he hopes her relationship with her new lover does not wind up being only half-baked, like the medical treatment of the king of Kamarupa. She asks what that was about, and Tuti begins the story by telling of a mother parrot who lived in the forest with her young, who liked to play with the fox cubs who lived at the base of the tree. The mother parrot is perched on the edge of her treetop nest.

Provenance

?–1959: Estate of Breckinridge Long [1881–1958], Bowie, MD 1959–1962?: (Harry Burke Antiques, Philadelphia, PA) 1959?–1962: (Bernard Brown Agency, Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry) 1962–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

Quick Overview

Artist: Dasavanta (Indian, d. 1584)
Date: c. 1560
Medium: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10 x 10.5 cm (3 15/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
Accession no.: 1962.279.32.a

More by Dasavanta in museum collections

The wounded monkey bites the hand of the prince, his chessmate, in the presence of guests, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifth Night
Dasavanta
c. 1560 · Painting
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009786
The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Sixth Night, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot)
Dasavanta
c. 1560 · Painting
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009844