Bronze Huqqa, Water Pipe, 17th-18th Century, Mughal Art, North India, Very Good Condition

Huqqa, bronze huqqa base dating from the 17th-18th century, an Indian water pipe similar to the Turkish hookah, from the Arabic "huqqah".
This magnificent object of Mughal art, abundantly decorated, originates from North India.

The body has slanted ribs, which is quite rare, as the decoration is more often aligned vertically.
Numerous engravings adorn the piece, which is in very good collector's condition.
A hookah, shisha, or water pipe is an instrument with one or more stems used to heat or vaporize and then smoke tobacco, flavored tobacco (often mu'assel), or sometimes cannabis, hashish, or opium.
The smoke passes through a water reservoir, often made of glass, before being inhaled.

The hookah, or water pipe, was invented by Abul-Fath Gilani, an Iranian physician to Akbar, in the Indian city of Fatehpur Sikri, during the Mughal Empire.
The hookah first spread from the Indian subcontinent to Persia, where its mechanism was modified into its current form, and then to the Ottoman Empire.
Another hypothesis is that it could have originated with the Safavid dynasty of Persia, from where it then spread to the Indian subcontinent.

Dimensions: Height: 32.5 cm (12.5") - base diameter: 16.2 cm (6.5") - weight: 2867 grams.
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. In the Indian subcontinent, the Hindustani word "huqqa" (Devanagari: हुक़्क़ा, Nastaleeq: حقّہ) is used and is the origin of the English word "hookah".
The widespread use of the Indian word "hookah" in English is a consequence of the colonization of British India (1858-1947), a period during which many British expatriates discovered the hookah.
William Hickey, shortly after arriving in Calcutta, India, in 1775, wrote in his Memoirs:
"I was presented with the most sumptuous and refined hookah.
I tried it, but did not like it. As, after several attempts, I still found it disagreeable, I asked very seriously whether it was absolutely necessary that I become a smoker, to which I was told with equal seriousness:
'Without a doubt, for you would be as much out of step with the world as out of fashion.
Here everyone smokes the hookah, and it is impossible to do without it…
I have often heard men declare that they would rather be deprived of their dinner than their hookah.'"