The Parrot Addresses Khujasta at the Beginning of the Twelfth Night

This Mughal miniature represents an illustration from the Tuti-nama, a collection of tales, glorifying love between a woman and a parrot. The parrot narrates stories to Khujasta, distracting her from leaving her house every night. In the given piece, the woman is depicted next to a green parrot in a cage, wearing a red dress and a transparent veil over her clothes. The background of the painting is also filled with intricate patterns, creating unusual walls, tiles, and carpets. The author of the miniature skillfully combines Indian elements, such as the figure of the woman, with the Persian tradition of decorating clothes and interiors with patterns. The unusual coloration of the sky, the simplicity of the architectural structures, and the exaggerated decorative elements of the carpets and tiles fill the picture with an extraordinary sense of luxury and opulence. The woman is portrayed in profile, making her facial features less noticeable. Instead, the author focuses on the lines of the woman’s dress, her pose, and the bird’s cage. The parrot plays a major role in the story, as it narrates tales to Khujasta, distracting her from her lover. The frame of the painting demonstrates one of the episodes of the story, in which the bird tells the woman a long story, making her late for her secret meetings with her lover. The miniature became an outstanding picture because of its ability to convey the narrative of the story through intricate patterns and colors. Apart from that, the Mughal painter illustrates the beauty of the Indian world with the help of traditional carpets and clothing and manages to accentuate the luxuriousness of the environment in which the story takes place.