Fragrance has always been a big part in Indian culture whether it be wearing attar, perfuming foods and cosmetics or lighting incense sticks. Ualif S Md Daud Md Yaqub and co. is one of the companies manufacturing and selling attar and perfumes in Kannauj. Nadeem Faruqui hails from a family that has been in this business for over two centuries and have grown their business from a single factory to multiple godowns and showrooms. 

​

 

The Process of Distilling Perfume
 

Sarvesh unties the sack of flower petals and pours them into the deg. The ‘deg’ is a copper still into which the natural ingredients like petals, twigs and leaves are put along with water. Before covering the deg with its lid, he packs the rim using a clay mix to seal the vessel after closing the lid. These degs are placed in a bhatti (clay furnace) which is fired with wooden logs to heat the deg. The steam travels from the deg into the bhapka or the receiver through a bamboo pipe wrapped with twine. 

​

This receiver is also made with copper and acts as a condenser for the scented vapour. This bhapka is placed in a cooling chamber filled with water. Saleel stays on his toes throughout this process and fills each chamber with water and changes it every 4-5 hours. The vapour collected mixes with the base oil kept inside the receivers and the excess water is removed.
 

They repeat this procedure every day for 4-5 weeks after which the scented oil is collected and heated in a larger vessel called patila. The attar is the allowed to settle and is stored in camel-skin bottles called kuppis to remove moisture, leaving behind pure attar.