A Mughal 16th - 17th century jade drinking cup with the Azhdaha.

The  Azhdaha dragon is a much important and legendry Persian mythical  creature, often depicted in the various Shahenama manuscripts .

The  Azdaha insignia was acquired by Timur during his conquest of Persia  & adopted as a royal Timurid insignia, an imperial symbol of power.  The insignia was inherited by Timurs descendents as a symbol of  authority, power, and legitimacy across the subcontinent and beyond.

The  Padshanama of Shah Jahan has several representations of the Azhdaha on  Mughal flags, banners, & quilt staffs. Aurangzeb Alamgir named one  of his favorite cannons the Azdaha Paikar (dragon body) which was used  during his Deccan conquests

Description

Jade cup 5.4cm. height,15.2cm. length, 8.7cm. width agate cup 4.3cm. height, 16.4cm. length, 9.6cm. width  marble base 8.2 by 16.5cm.  overall 18cm. max. height, 28cm. max. length

The cup of boat form, the nephrite jade of pale green colour inlaid  with an arabesque of gold interlacing tendrils issuing flowerheads and  palmettes and a flying bird, set with coloured glass with claw-settings,  quatrefoils on either side enclosing the arms of Navarre and  France, the interior with further gold-inlaid stem set with coloured  glass, mounted on a gilt-bronze stand cast in the form a wyvern with  back-stretched wings resting on a rocky mound supported on a verde  antico rectangular base; together with an agate cup of oval form cut  with a narrow tapering footring also supported by a gilt-bronze  wyvern on a mottled peach, grey and white marble rectangular base.

Only two comparable jade bowls are known to exist, one is in the  National Palace Museum, Taipei (Melikian-Chirvani 1992, p.88, fig.34)  and the other in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Lisbon 2002,  p.146, no. 44). The wine-boat in the Kunsthistorisches Museum,  incorrectly catalogued as a Turkish drinking vessel, was recorded in the  Inventory of the Wiener Schatzkammer in 1750. The exact origin of  these two bowls has been disputed. There have been suggestions that they  were carved in Iran or possibly China and later inlaid and set in  India, but it is now believed that they were both carved and mounted in  Hindustan.

There is a tradition in the subcontinent for working hardstones that  dates back to the earliest times. During the Roman period Cambay in  Western India was a centre for exporting agate vessels and other objects  to the West. The use of jade however only became evident during the  Mughal period, reaching its peak during the seventeenth century under  the patronage of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Abu'l Fazl records that the  Emperor Akbar received a merchant at court by the name of Khwaja Mu'in  who had the right to the jade stores in the bed of the river Kashgar.  Nephrite jade was primarily found in the rivers of the Kunlun mountains  near Khotan and Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province, an area that came  under Timurid control in the late fourteenth century.

Emperor Jahangir (r.1605-27), who was keen to emulate his Timurid  ancestors, owned several Timurid artefacts including a number of jade  vessels that formed part of the emperor's personal collection. Jahangir  had some of his prized vessels inscribed with his signature, including a  jug in the British Museum dated 1624 and a white nephrite jade jug in  the Gulbenkian Foundation, inscribed to Ulugh Beg with subsequent  inscriptions recording its possession by Jahangir and Shah Jahan.  Jahangir not only collected jades but also commissioned them. The jades  produced under Jahangir's patronage were heavily influenced by earlier  Timurid forms that were derived from ceramic and metalwork sources.  William Hawkins a merchant who was invited to Jahangir's court gives an  account of the treasures he encountered 'drinking cuppes five hundred,  but fiftie very rich, that is to say, made of one piece of ballace ruby  [spinel], and also of emerods [emeralds], of eshim [yashm: Persian for  jade]... and of other sorts of stones.' Hawkins also lists the presence  of a large amount of uncut stone, including 55llb of uncut jade (Stronge  1994, p.7).

The concept of the wine-bowl is an ancient one that has its origins in  the pre-Islamic past where wine was often equated with the sun. This  celestial symbolism continued into the Sasanian period and later  appeared in Persian literature and poetry. As seen in the words of the  eighth-century poet Abu Nuwas "Of nectar someone on seeing it said to me:/ The sun has been trapped for us in a wine bowl" (Melikian-Chirvani 1992, p.13).  The origins of the boat-shaped form is discussed in detail by Dr A. S. Melikian-Chirvani (Ibid. pp. 3-111). What is interesting is that unlike the examples in the Taipei National  Museum and Kunsthistoriches Museum, the present jade bowl is footless,  indicating either that its contents were intended to be consumed before  it was put down, or that it was designed to be passed around during a  courtly gathering (bazm), or that it was held at all times  either by the owner or by a manservant indicating the elevated status of  the former. Jahangir often hosted bazm and was particularly  fond of drinking and entertaining: 'I held a meeting in one of the  houses of the palace of Nur-Jahan Begum... I ordered them to give the  people cups and all kind of intoxicating drinks according to the desire  of each... I ordered that whoever drank a cup should sit according to  his mansab [rank] and condition... A grand entertainment took place, and the drinkers of cups took more cups that they could carry. (Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, vol 1, p.385, see S. Markel, Fit for an Emperor: Inscribed Works of Decorative Art Acquired by the Great Mughals, p.27).

During the seventeenth century jade objects were often inlaid with gold  and set with gems in the manner seen on the present cup. This is  recorded by the traveller Jean de Thevenot who describes gold and gem  inlaying at Agra (see India in the Seventeenth Century, Vol II, 'The Voyages of Thevenot and Careri', ed. J.P. Guha, New Delhi 1979) . The French physician François Bernier mentions jade cups inlaid with  gold and set with stones in a letter written in 1665: 'The jade stone  presented upon this occasion was of an extraordinary size and therefore  very precious. Jachen (yashm) is in great estimation in the court of the Mogol:  its colour is greenish, with white veins, and it is so hard as to  wrought only with diamond powder. Cups and vases are made of this stone.  I have some of most exquisite workmanship, inlaid with strings of gold  and enriched with precious stones'  (Travels in the Mogul Empire AD1656-1668. ed. by. A.Constable, London, 1891 pp.422-3).

During Shah Jahan's reign (1628-58) a more naturalistic and decorative  vocabulary evolved.The floral arabesque was a particularly favoured  decorative device. Nowhere is this more visible than in the adornment of  architecture. There are very strong parallels between the decoration  seen on imperial buildings and on hardstone objects. The floral scroll  decorating the interior dome of the Tomb of Akbar at Sikandra (1613) and  the Tomb of Itimad ad-Daula (1626-28) is broadly similar in stylization  to the gold inlaid arabesque seen on the present jade cup. By  the second quarter of the seventeenth century jade carving had reached  its height as displayed in the quality of the Shah Jahan wine-cup now in  the V&A (inv. no.IS 12-1962). Inscribed and dated 1657, not only is  the cup exquisitely worked, it also represents the diverse cultural  sources that were present in the Mughal court during the seventeenth  century (see Robert Skelton 1966 for a further discussion of this). Like  the Shah Jahan cup the design and decoration of the present cup is a  synthesis of Persian, Indian and European elements. During the  seventeenth century a number of European lapidaries were employed in the  Mughal court. Including the French goldsmith Augustin of Bordeaux who  made a golden throne for Itimad ad-Daula to present to Jahangir at Nowruz in  1619; and the Portuguese jewellery designer Lorenço Mendes 'was many  years in the King's service, drawing the models of jewels which he (the  King) ordered to be made, the goldsmiths then applying the enamel and  the precious stones.'

The two recorded bowls, in Vienna and Taipei, and the present cup  possess distinctive foliate-shaped settings. Instead of being set in the  usual kundan technique the gems are discreetly set with claws  chiselled in the form of petals and leaves. This is a European technique  rarely seen in India during this period. The Museo Nacional Soares dos  Reis, Oporto, has a seventeenth-century reliquary-cross and pair of  cruets that display the same settings. This altar set once in the  Portuguese monastery of Alcobaça was probably made by imperial jewellers  as an ambassadorial gift for the Portuguese in Goa (Lisbon 2004,  p.164).  The "Clive bottle" (formerly in the V&A, see The Indian Heritage, 1982, p. 154, no.13) of pale nephrite jade set with rubies and emeralds shares the same delicately chiselled claw-settings.