Incense Burner

This incense burner is a combination of forms of a peacock and a cobra - the tail of the peacock being shaped as cobra. The chest of the peacock has multiple perforations from where incensed smoke issues out. The belly of the peacock where the incense is burned on coal is a bowl attached to a pedestal and has a curved handle which combined with the pedestal provides a stable grip when placed on the ground.
References to incense burning both as a part of ritual offerings to deities as well as for perfuming the house (including women’s hair after bath) go back to literature of early centuries of the Christian era.