Pushkar incense (sometimes termed "Pushkar Temple") Agar Woods

 

Pushkar is a temple town in the northwest of India. There are three incense outlets in the town (there used to be five, but two have recently closed down according to Google maps) - Nityam, Shiva, and Om. Nityam sell their incense in packets with a smiley face, and I have some of those, as sold by Mystic Soul, which I will review later. I purchased these Agar Woods sticks (and several others) from the UK based Pilgrims Fair Trade - a company I have used several times in the past, as they sometimes have quirky items not sold elsewhere.  From photos, I assume that Pilgrims sourced these from Om Pushkar Natural Incens; but it's not yet known if Om source them elsewhere, or organise the manufacture themselves. It is quite common for Indian shops to sell white label incense under their own name - Ramakrishna's is a well known example. Pilgrims market them as Pushkar "Temple Incense" and "Natural Hand Made Masala Incense", and I note that on various incense blogs and forums, they are termed "Pushkar Temple", though the outlets in Pushkar say "Natural" and "Hand Rolled", but not "Temple". Its possible, but I doubt if any of the temples in Pushkar are making these. 

The perfume on the stick is a little crude, but there's plenty of it, and it is quirky. There's a smoky, kind of leathery charm to it, overlaid with some cheap old lady's rose perfume. It smells rustic, crude, and somehow fascinating. It's not good, but it is interesting. 

The dominant scent on the burn is damp rose, some wood smoke (the bamboo sticks are fairly chunky), and an awareness of chemicals. But this is not room-freshener synthetic scent chemical, this is more cleaning agent chemical. There's touches of bleach. The whole thing is crude yet quaint. There's a clumsy, home-made charm about it. It's quite heady, and is not the sort of scent that you'd burn when you are expecting guests. But as an example of low cost, back-street incense from a poor town in the north of India, this holds some interest. Don't expect sophistication. Don't expect agarwood, indeed, any wood. Don't expect any kind of balance or harmony. This is just some perfumes blended together with some agarbatti oil to made a cheap, heady incense.  And for all that, there is something familiar about the scent. I'm not sure I've burned this stick before, but certainly something close to it under a different name. 

Date: Jan 2025   Score:  27 

***

Pushkar incense