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A traveler persuades Lorik to return home (top); Chanda objects (bottom), from a Chandayana (Story of Chanda)

c. 1540
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

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In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · as of July 2026

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FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

Chanda is the heroine of a Sufi romance. The Sufis are a mystical branch of Islam whose followers cultivate love for the divine. This painting is from a dispersed manuscript of the Chandayana painted in a style that was an important source for Mughal painting. Its artists integrated Persian colors and delicate vine motifs with figures presented in profile, within flat, compartmentalized registers, which are horizontal divisions of space. The drama of their interactions is conveyed by means of animated gestures.

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