Mohammed Abdur Rahman Chughtai from Lahore now in Pakistan, belonged to a family of traditional artists and architects, originally from Persia. He grew up with the language of the miniature tradition and this made him respond to the aesthetics of the Bengal School. Chughtai’s first lessons in art were from his uncle who was a traditional artist. He then joined the Mayo College of Art at Lahore and finally travelled to Kolkata (then Calcutta) to train under Abanindranath Tagore.

The painting ‘Hiraman Tota’ shows Chughtai’s understanding of the classical narrative tradition where the parrot, among other things, was a messenger between separated lovers. The treatment of the image with a seated woman in the foreground, the bird, architectural elements and the stylized vegetation in the background is strongly reminiscent of a miniature painting. Chughtai’s intense palette and handling of drapes, the lyricism of his lines mark this painting as a very distinctive work.