This fight, between small businesses such as the PragatiAroma Oil distillery and global groups such as Armani and Chanel, mirrorsthousands of other battles across India between ancient practices and theforces of modernity. Laxmi Narayan, 72, has spent the last 30 years making whatis known as attar, an oil-based perfume manufactured using a method dating backthousands of years.
"Attar-making is a painstaking craft," Narayansaid through a cloud of thick smoke that billowed from wood fires set below arow of simmering copper pots that he was constantly monitoring. "We relyon our instincts, we know the attar is ready by the smell and feel of it,"he added.
Sushil Singh, a supervisor at the distillery about 130kilometres from state capital Lucknow inUttar Pradesh state, believes machines can never take the place of experiencedhands. "The smell will be lost if we start using machines. People areforgetting the value of attar."
Each morning local farmers near Kannauj pluck bagful’s ofrose, jasmine and other petals and deliver them to the nearby perfumedistilleries dotting this sleepy town. In a process that can take days tocomplete, the flowers are mixed with water and heated in the copper pots. Thearomatic steam is then transferred via a bamboo pipe to a receptacle containingsandalwood oil which acts as the base for the attar. But while it is stillpopular with natural fragrance enthusiasts, attar is increasingly shunned byIndia's brand-conscious consumers who have become used to foreign productssince economic reforms in the 1990s opened up the country.
Rising raw material costs, particularly of oil which must beimported because of limited production in India, are also a major headache. "Theattar industry is gasping for survival," says Rohan Seth, thevice-president of the Fragrances and Flavours Association of India, an umbrellagroup of around 800 traders. Located on the banks of River Ganges, the city ofKannauj was once a key trading centre for Indian perfumes, spices and silksthat were sent mainly to the countries in the Middle East.
Remnants of sprawlingforts and royal facades stand testimony to the bygone glory of the city. Butfor many like Delhi businessman Anshul Agarwal, nothing compares to thehigh-end brands that he is fond of buying from the modern glass and steelshopping malls in the city. "One of my friends had gifted me an attararound a year back. It is still lying unused because I love my Calvin Kleinsand Davidoffs," said the 34-year-old.
