Use attar to make romance bloom
Firoz Bakht Ahmed

An assortment of attars at Gulab Singh Johri Mal

IT it is known for melting the coldness of a maid and the sternness of a saint! The centuries-old desi perfume, attar is now making waves in the international fashion scene. Recently Naomi Campbell, the bewitching model, was seen trying out mehndi and attar. Few know that Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has a weakness for attar khus. Stolen from fresh flowers, attar is whisked into glass bottles after a very tedious and long drawn out process. Many attar users keep using the same perfume for years together — in fact for the whole life!

The queen of all attars happens to be rooh gulab, which was discovered by Noorjehan, the wife of Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Besides, chameli and majmua too are popular. According to Ram Singh and Krishna Mohan Singh, proprietors of Delhi’s oldest attar shop Gulab Singh Johri Mal, established in 1816, it is not an easy job to collect pure and fresh flowers for the purpose of extracting attar from them.

Indian literature is replete with examples of the potency of attar which was used to help romance bloom.

In Aain-e-Akbari, Abul Fazal, has mentioned that Akbar daily used attar and burnt incense sticks in gold and silver censers. A princess’s toilette was incomplete without incense and attar. A very popular attar with the Mughal princes was ood, prepared in Assam. It also served as a potent aphrodisiac, something like the Indian "Spanish Fly! During the reign of Akbar Shah II, men — nawabs, rajahs, landlords, subedars, the nobility — sat for hours in the shop of Gulab Singh, delicately sniffing and choosing their attar without being labelled as effeminate! That was a leisurely era when attars placed in exquisite boxes with ivory in-laid work and carrying Belgian cut-glass decanters were sent to Mughal queens and princesses and other women from the nobility to sample and select their favourite fragrances.

Attars are not only classified according to their contents but also according to the time of the year in which they are to be used. The warm notes of the spicy hina prepared from musk and saffron have the greatness of smelling different on every skin. Whenever Ghalib used to meet his beloved in winters, he smeared his hands and face with attar hina. Besides, according to Naveen Gundhi, son of Krishna Mohan, aromatherapy, which helps cure diseases by using attars, was developed in India long ago.

Oils that are used for making attars are known for their medicinal value. Lemon oil is effective to treat diabetes, asthma, boils and varicose veins. Migraine and hangovers can be cured by taking three drops of marjorem with jaggery. The simplest example of aromatherapy is attar gill (sondhi mitti) that has the fresh aroma that emanates from the earth after the first summer showers. It helps keep your blood pressure in check and stops the flow of blood flowing through the nose due to intense heat. Sherbet of attar khus is relished in summers as it provides a cooling effect to the system.

No chemicals are blended in attars as they are pure scents. But pure attars come at almost unaffordable prices these days due to dearth of animal products like musk, amber and myrrh. Synthetic attars are cheaper in comparison to the pure ones. These also have similar names and cost no more than Rs 100 per 10 gm vial. Raat ki rani, haarsinghar, motia, kadamba, patchouli, molsri are some of the synthetic attars. Besides, incense sticks are also available at Gulab Singh Johri Mal. Ram Singh nostalgically recounts that his grandfather Lala Banarsi Das used to tell him that a nehr (lake) named Nehr-e-Bahisht (River of Paradise) used to flow in Chandni Chowk.

But this quaint way of keeping perfumes is gradually slipping into the realm of "antique things in our grandfather’s time," laments Ram Singh. His younger brother Krishna, however, optimistically says: "Attars are very truly like flowers — as old as them but as fresh as tomorrow’s dew drops." Even though nobody or very few may have the time or the inclination to be passionate about attars any more, the fondness for them will remain!