Hookah

This is the most elaborately decorated enamelled object from the Indian treasury known. Both the water vessel and the support for the tobacco bowl are decorated with translucent cloisonné and opaque champlevé enamels. The designs include flowers, crested birds and lavishly costumed and bejewelled peris offering gifts.
 Stylistically, the decoration resembles early 18th-century Rajasthani painting and the hookah may be attributed to Mewar, the paramount Rajput state. Here, the hookah was adopted as an attribute of royalty, and many portraits of the Udaipur school show rulers smoking – on horseback or riding an elephant, out walking, playing with their children, receiving guests, embracing courtesans and even bathing [see MSS 965].