Pink roses being ready for extraction of important oils by way of hydro-distillation in Kannauj | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint
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Kannauj: It is claimed that fragrance flows by way of the drains of the traditional metropolis of Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. And that is no exaggeration.
In the fragrance capital of India, which is dwelling to about 300 small, medium and enormous distilleries, a nice perfume always lingers within the air and the remnants of roses and different flowers are strewn throughout the town, together with within the drains.
The centuries-old custom of distilling perfumes or ‘attar’, additionally pronounced itr, in Kannauj dates again to the Mughal courts, and this legacy continues. The old-world perfumery nonetheless makes use of the normal methodology of distilling perfumes which can be based mostly on important oils and never alcohol.
Woodsy, floral, musky and androgynous, attars are markedly totally different from alcohol-based perfumes. They’re constructed from important oils extracted from flowers and different substances, that are dissolved in water or oil reasonably than alcohol. And this makes them extra aromatic and simply absorbent.
On World Fragrance Day, 21 March, right here’s a glance inside Kannauj, the fragrance capital of India.
Raw supplies
India grows 31 of 300 naturally aromatic uncooked supplies required to fabricate perfumes, and can also be a number one provider of important oils like mint, jasmine, sandalwood, tuberose and spices within the international market.
Pink roses being plucked from a discipline on the outskirts of Kannauj | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrintAt current, pink roses are in full bloom on the outskirts of Kannauj, that are cultivated by a number of farmers. These roses are thought of to be essentially the most aromatic, and the oil extracted from them the costliest. Farmers promote them to brokers at roughly Rs 35 per kg, who, in flip, provide them to the town.
Mohammed Shakir, 23, an area flower farmer, stated he grows about 15-16 kg of roses inside two days. “I’ve to pluck roses solely thrice per week they usually can fetch me as much as Rs 80 per kg, relying on the season,” he instructed ThePrint.
Other in style flowers are bela or arabian jasmine, champa (plumeria), marigold and kewda. Roots of crops like henna are additionally used to make attars.
Also learn: This is why the remaining of India flocks to Asia’s largest tulip backyard
Nur Jahan’s legend and geographical proximity
For many in Kannauj, perfume-making is their main occupation, however there’s a internet of wealthy historical past and mythology across the occupation.
According to native legend, the enterprise of fragrance making within the metropolis began with Mughal empress Nur Jahan, spouse to emperor Jahangir, within the early seventeenth century.
The empress used to wash in a pool with rose petals and as soon as observed that the flowers would go away oil behind within the water and concluded that the aromatic oil may very well be extracted from flowers.
Nur Jahan was an avid fanatic of fragrances and due to this fact, Jahangir inspired analysis on their extraction and growth. The legend states that some males (the precise quantity is unclear), who occurred to be from Kannauj, managed to extract the aromatic oil from the flowers for the queen.
According to Pranjal Kapoor, who heads M.L. Ramnarain perfumers within the metropolis, based in 1888, Kannauj’s place because the fragrance capital of India additionally developed as a result of of its geographical place.
“Kannauj is positioned close to massive cities like Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow, and isn’t too far-off from Delhi both. Its soil is fertile with the Ganga close by, so it was in all probability developed as this fragrance industrial hub by the emperors,” Kapoor stated.
A perfumery in Kannauj | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrintAlso learn: How a chemist burnt his hand and gave beginning to aromatherapy
Traditional strategies of distilling
In Kannauj, the normal method of hydro-distillation continues to be broadly in use as an alternative of the newer and quicker methodology of steaming.
Perfumers within the metropolis imagine that this conventional methodology offers unmatched perfume.
“The scent profile of the normal methodology is exclusive and unmatched, which is why we follow it, and that is what makes Kannauj’s attars really particular,” T.N. Tandan, a fragrance distiller, instructed ThePrint. Tandan owns Devi Prasad Sunder Lal Khatri perfumers, which was based in 1870.
Almost everybody within the metropolis is engaged in attar-making in a method or one other. The first half of the method begins on the break of daybreak when farmers and labourers go to their fields to pluck flowers of the season.
These flowers are then transported to distilleries positioned within the metropolis. They’re put into enormous vessels referred to as deg made of copper. An common vessel can maintain 100kg of flowers of various sizes. The tightly packed deg is then capped with clay in order that air can’t escape.
These are linked to a bhapka, one other receiver made of copper, which acts as a condenser and is positioned in a water tank. The deg is put on hearth on a furnace and the bhapka distills the steam.
This course of is extraordinarily laborious. “On a mean, one will extract 180 gm of rooh gulaab from 400 kg of flowers,” Kapoor stated.
The conventional methodology of perfume-making utilizing hydro-distillation | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrintFamous attars
Kannauj manufactures important oils, attars, floral water and floral absolutes. Among the distinctive and in style attars provided by the town is shamama, which is constructed from the roots of henna.
“Shamama is a well-liked, distinctive attar of Kannauj. It is a concoction of over 41 pure substances together with herbs, spices and important oils and each household has a singular recipe of its personal right here,” Kapoor stated.
Mitti attar is one other in style providing, which was an try and seize the smell of rain (petrichor) in a bottle.
“Mitti attar is made by co-distillation of earthen clay pots with sandalwood oil or different oils. It is sort of soothing and calming. Other than that, additionally it is utilized in different creations of perfumery whereby it’s used as an ingredient which brings out an earthy basis to the concoction,” he added.
The important oils from Kannauj can vary from Rs 25 for a small 1 gm bottle to over Rs 20 lakh per kg.
“We’ve divided our merchandise into 3 classes: Rs 10,000 per kg, Rs 60,000 per kg and Rs 1,60,000 per kg throughout all our fragrances,” added Tandan.
“The two most costly merchandise are agarwood oil (from aquilaria bushes in Assam) that may value as much as Rs 25 lakh a kilo and absolute oil of rooh gulab (from pink roses) that sells for as much as Rs 8 lakh a kilo,” he stated.
(Edited by Rachel John)
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