Cottage Industries Sandhya Pooja

 

Cottage Industries is part of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. It was founded in 1949 by The Mother in order to provide the ashram with incense, and has since expanded, with exports taking place from 1973 onwards.  Sandhya Pooja is part of a modern range of three scents celebrating the Hindu gods Krishna and Shiva -  Sandhya Pooja is part of the celebration of the Hindu gods which takes place at twilight, and can be translated as "twilight ritual". I was sent a sample by Samsa Spoon, who has the Plume of Smoke blog, and that prompted me to dig out a pack of samples I received from Padma Store in Germany. 

These are crudely made perfumed-charcoal joss sticks. A charcoal paste has been hand-rolled around hand-cut bamboo splints, and the finished sticks (or "blanks") have been soaked in a fragrant oil. The joss sticks are of varying thickness, and are inconsistent in themselves - so I have one fat one, one thin one, and one that wobbles in and out. The scent on the sticks varies slightly across all three, though it is mainly sweet and floral with an inclination toward rose; the thin one is rather more clinical in scent, and reminds me of disinfectant and hospital wards. 

The scent on the burn is quite faint, and  tends to be more about the non-fragrant ingredients. It is the thin one that has the most perfume. One of the sticks that Samsa sent me has barely any fragrance at all, though all three sticks wander to and fro with sometimes an attractive scent, and sometimes a fairly neutral, though never unpleasant, scent. On the whole this is a modestly attractive lightly floral scent that I don't find that interesting.  It is fairly ordinary and unremarkable. 


Date: March 2023    Score: 20 

Cottage Industries