Situated on the banks of the sacred Ganges River, the city of Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh has been known for centuries as the “perfume capital” of India. The traditional technique of making essential oils is considered a legacy of the Kannauj people. According to the people here, only perfume refined by hand can retain its scent for a long time and is completely harmless to health. This is also what makes the flower essential oil, also known as “attar” here, completely different from all the synthetic industrial perfumes today.
In addition to its special, intense scent, “attar” is also famous for the meticulous investment of time and effort in each distillation stage. For example, in the production of rose essential oil, it takes 4 tons of fresh roses to extract 1kg of pure rose essential oil.
Right from dawn, workers had to harvest each damask rose by hand, put them in large sacks and transport them to the factory for distillation that same day.
At the factory, they will pour roses into large copper pots with a little cold water and boil them for 4-6 hours continuously. The hot steam will cause the flowers to release essential oils, which will then condense and flow into a container through a bamboo tube. Usually, this container contains sandalwood oil, which acts as a solvent for the attar. In addition to roses, people also use jasmine, henna, etc., but the most popular and expensive scent is still the sweet scent of rose petals.
Making attar is a difficult craft, requiring not only experience but also patience and love for the job. If the copper pot is overheated or underheated, it will greatly affect the scent of the essential oil. Because the processing method is completely manual and sophisticated, attar essential oil is quite expensive. Another reason is that sandalwood essential oil is increasingly scarce due to widespread deforestation, which has caused the Indian government to tighten the law and ban the exploitation of sandalwood, pushing the price of this wood to sky-high levels.
Making attar is a difficult craft that requires not only experience but also patience and love for the job.
One of the most special products of Kannauj is “ruh al gulab” - an essence considered as “the soul of roses”. Ruh al gulab uses only one ingredient: roses, without any other additives and is produced by distilling rose essential oil many times to increase the concentration. To produce 1 kg of ruh al gulab, factories need twice the amount of roses, or about 8 tons. And the wholesale price of 1 kg of ruh al gulab is about 18,000 USD. Because of the completely natural ingredients, these essential oils can be applied directly to the skin without causing irritation, and the natural scent also lingers on the body for a long time.
One of the world’s largest markets for essential oils is the Middle East, with its wealthy elite. In 2014, it was estimated that an Arab consumer could spend up to $700 a month on attars alone. Attar, or ruh al gulab, is highly prized by Muslims in both India and the Middle East.
Flower essential oils are stored in camel skin jars.
There are about 20 million people in Kannauj who directly or indirectly depend on the essential oil industry. Although there is a steady flow of customers, traditional perfumers are worried that their profession will gradually fade away and disappear. The livelihood of the people here is threatened by the appearance of industrial perfumes made of chemicals and other alternative fragrances, causing traditional perfumes to gradually lose popularity. About 20 years ago, there were 700 essential oil distilleries in Kannauj but today, that number is less than 100.
Ousman, a veteran essential oil producer in Kannauj, still believes that no machine can replace skilled hands and traditional distillation methods to produce superior aromatic essences: “The difference between natural perfumes and synthetic chemical fragrances is like the difference between food cooked in a microwave and food cooked in a wood stove.”
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