Ranga Rao Cycle Brand Heritage Warli

 

A Cycle brand perfumed-masala in their Heritage range, launched in May 2022, which celebrates the tribal art of the Warli people near the West coast of India in the former Bombay State. The Warli tribal art had a continuous and stable history of over a 1,000 years until the 1970s when Jivya Soma Mashe, who after losing his mother when he was seven years old had only communicated through drawing in the dust, took up and transformed what had previously been an art only done by women for special ritual occasions. The art was previously typified by its rigid simplicity - using only circle, triangle, and circle shapes, and using only white on red, and could be seen mainly as a form of decoration until Mashe added colour, movement, and meaning. Using the art to express ideas and emotions.  Coco Cola has used some of the imagery of the original ritual art in their adverts. 

Warli art

The incense is not as interesting as the background story or the box, which is decorated with Warli art. The incense is sub-titled Prayer Incense on the back of the box, which is part promotional, but may also be an admission that the incense isn't for aesthetic use. That's not to say that it's an unpleasant incense - it's actually quite acceptable, just that it's rather ordinary, and a little bit dull and old fashioned.  The sticks are made from a charcoal-based paste with a masala (mix) of dried fragrant ingredients, some of which can be seen as flecks in the paste. It has then been coated in a rather crude agarbatti fragrance oil which gives off a strong volatile aroma of pine toilet cleaner. 

The scent is more attractive on the burn than on the stick, but is largely vague and indifferent. There are no off-notes, and it's not an assertive or smoky incense, but it doesn't actually do much. It has a gentle warmth which comes from a modest base of sandalwood, and is enlivened with some floral touches of champaka - a combination similar to Nag Champa, and a blend of floral and wood which has been around since Sugandha Shringar was introduced in 1960.

Points for the box and for raising awareness of Warli art, but on the whole an indifferent fairly average incense.  Sold in India for 50 rupees (50p, 61c) - the equivalent of £5 in the UK economy - for 62g, this is a decent value incense, though not a budget price.  As far as I'm aware it's not available in the UK, though can be bought via Aavyaa in India who do ship internationally at a reasonable rate. I bought a box of 30 different, interesting, and hard to obtain Indian incense from them for £42 including postage.  Bargain! There is an eBay seller who will ship the entire Cycle Heritage range (4 packs) to America for $24.23. 

Date: March 2023   Score: 27   

***

Ranga Rao