The lover’s son makes an elephant of the pastry dough carried by the unfaithful wife and puts it in her basket, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night

Cleveland Museum of Art

The lover’s son makes an elephant of the pastry dough carried by the unfaithful wife and puts it in her basket, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night

Date
c. 1560
Medium
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Culture
Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art

On her way to bring a meal to her husband, a woman encountered a man who offered her money for sex. They embrace and go off to a sheltered place, leaving his son with the food basket. Bored with waiting for them, he fashions a pastry from the woman’s basket into the shape of an elephant. The mango tree at the right is native to India.

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