The court of the Raja of Ujjain, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-sixth Night
Unknown Artist
c. 1560
Medium
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions
20.3 × 14 cm · painting only: 15.9 × 10.1 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
Accession Number
1962.279.291.b
About this artwork
When out hunting, the formidable raja of Ujjain captured a fantastic animal and brought it back to his court. It is described as being so soft that the fur of his body “made the back of the sable seem as hard as stone and the smoothness of whose coat made the fur of the ermine feel like the anvil of a blacksmith.” In devising this wondrous creature’s appearance, the artist gave him cloven hoofs, a beak, and horns, as though inspired by European images of griffins, but with soft-looking fur.