Cleveland Museum of Art

Sultan and Musicians

Date

c. 1650

Medium

Gum tempera and gold on paper

Culture

Mughal India, Deccan

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The tone-on-tone pale mustard-yellow carpet and orange floor cushion furnish the terrace with a seat of honor for the figure dressed in white. The peacock-feather whisk held by an attendant behind him is an emblem of his royal status. Lying conspicuously before his knees, Muslim prayer beads mark him as a man of piety. He also partakes in courtly pleasures of hookah smoking and paan chewing. Green triangular paan packets consist of betel nut, lime, and flavorful aromatics such as cinnamon or coconut, wrapped in betel leaf. A brass spittoon by his side would be used for spitting throughout the enjoyable process of chewing the packets. The two singers with open mouths may be performing a work by a mystic of the Sufi branch of Islam, given the essential role of music in Sufism and the pious mood of the all-male gathering.

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