An artistic journey is what encapsulates the bottles of Kannauj Naturals. The generational skills of perfumery seep into the refined blends of these tasteful and mastered scents that exude the aromas of India.Kannauj has been distilling itra, or attar, for centuries now, coaxing roses, jasmines, and other flowers into giving up their fragrance, and quickly bottling them up with essential oils.
For centuries Kannauj (pronounced kunh-nowj), in northeast India’s Ganges belt, has been crafting oil-based botanical perfumes called attar using time-tested distillation methods. Sought after by both Mughal royals and everyday folk in ancient India’s fragrance-obsessed culture, Kannauj attar scented everything from wrists to food, fountains to homes.
Perfume’, derived from the Latin ‘per fumus’, literally translates into ‘through smoke’. And it is literally through fumes, that the full impact of personal fragrance is felt.
Process of making -
But what makes Kannauj’s attar-making industry even more interesting is that despite the passage of time, they still follow the traditional method, a highly labour-intensive and time-consuming hydro-distillation process, called ‘deg bhapka’.Attar makers of Kannauj can draw out the fragrance from a large number of natural ingredients, such as different kinds of flowers (rose, kewra, chameli, bela, marigold, jasmine, lavender, etc.), from natural products such as vetiver, and herbs and spices (cardamom, cloves, saffron, juniper berry, jatamansi, etc.). Usually, the flowers are plucked at dawn so that they retain the best fragrance. The ‘deg’ is a copper still into which the natural ingredients, such as flower petals, are put in along with water. The pots are covered with lids and sealed with a special clay mix. These pots are placed on clay furnace (‘bhatti’) fired with wood and cow-dung cakes. The deg is connected to the long-necked ‘bhapka’ or the receiver, which is also made of copper, through the ‘chonga’ or a twine-wrapped bamboo pipe, which acts as a condenser too. The bhapka whose mouth has been covered with cloth sits in a cooling chamber filled with water (‘gachhi’). A base oil, usually sandalwood oil, is poured in the bhapka. As the deg is fired, the vapour from the ingredient collects in the bhapka, gets condensed and the oil collects the fragrance. But it is easier said than done.
Famous scents from Kannauj-
1) Mitti Attar
2) Ruh Khus Attar
3) Shamama Attar
4) Blue lotus Attar
5) Jasmine Attar
6) White Oudh Attar
7) Kesar chandan Attar
8) Jannatul Firdaus Attar
9) Saffron Attar
10) Sandalwood Attar
11) Musk amber Attar
12) Bakhoor Attar
13) Mukhallat Attar
14) Nargis Attar
15) Henna attar
16) Kewra Attar
17) Majmua Attar
18) Kadamb Attar
19) Marigold Attar
20) Black Oudh Attar
The scent of a droplet lingers pleasantly on the skin, sometimes for days.
Equally enchanting to men and women, attars have an androgynous quality. They strike intense floral, woodsy, musky, smoky,...
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