Do you enjoy the wonderful aroma of damp earth that lingers in the air after the first rain of the season? This ethereal essence, which is also known as petrichor, is a collection of molecules that rises from parched soil as it finally receives the long-awaited raindrops. An ancient city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, ‘Kannauj’ made it possible a very long time ago for people to bottle the enticing aroma of freshly mown grass and make it available for purchase.
Even in modern times, the exceptional fragrance known as Mitti attar is crafted by the traditional perfumeries of Kannauj. These perfumeries are characterized by their use of aging copper cauldrons or degs in which supple craftsmen tend fires. The distillation process, which is known as deg bhapka, is laboriously slow and takes a very long time. There is not even the slightest hint of industrial machinery or modernity.
According to the information provided by the government-operated Fragrance & Flavour Development Centre, there are approximately 400 attar perfumeries in Kannauj; however, only approximately 10% of them produce mitti attar (FFDC). Maruti Natural Fragrances is also one of the leading companies that produce Mitti Attar and a whole lot of many more essential oils and attars and have a wide range to choose from for their customers.
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In the past, the perfumes were kept in camel-skin pockets; however, they are now kept in bottles made from buffalo skins.
The leather bottles, known as kuppis, containing the fragrant essential oil that has become trapped in the sandalwood oil base are exposed to the sun in order to facilitate the evaporation of any excess water and the development of the attar’s authentic aroma, which is described as being warm, organic, and mineral-rich.
All of these fragrances are safeguarded by the Geographical Indication (GI) tag of Kannauj Perfumes, which was granted by the Government of India in accordance with the terms of the GI Act 1999.
How are Attars and their aroma produced?
Attar is a form of traditional perfumery. Perfume has its origins in the Latin word per, which means “through the smoke.” Historically, humans created perfume by crushing botanicals and infusing them directly into oil or water. Attars, on the other hand, have traditionally been made with sandalwood oil, which makes them vicious and highly absorbent. This is in contrast to modern perfumes, which use alcohol as a carrier or solvent because it is inexpensive, neutral, and easy to diffuse. A droplet leaves behind a pleasant scent that lingers on the skin for several days at a time.
At Maruti Natural Fragrances, the process takes about 15 working days. Ironically, the most difficult time of year to produce Mitti attar is during the monsoon. This is due to the fact that the process involves baking clay that has been extracted from topsoil, which is difficult to do with the squelchy monsoon earth. As a direct consequence of this, we typically do not produce Mitti attar during the rainy season.
The surrounding communities are responsible for the production of fragments of clay, which are then sun-baked and stored in degs. The artisans fill the deg with water, cover the vetiver roots and flower petals with water, hammer a lid down on top of the deg, and seal it with mud. These shards of half-baked clay are used in place of the vetiver roots and flower petals. The first light a fire underneath the bhapka using either wood or cow dung, and then they fill the bhapka with sandalwood oil before placing it in the water trough.
The deg and the bhapka are joined together by a pipe made of hollow bamboo. This pipe transports the fragrant vapors from the pot that is slowly heating up to the receiver, where they are combined with the sandalwood oil foundation. In order to prevent condensation from forming, the receiver is switched out at regular intervals, and the deg is cooled down using wet cloths.