At some point last year (2025) I came upon a reference to Jaygee's incense, and so looked them up. The company, Bangalore Incense Store, was set up in 2008 by Jaygee Mavalur as an outlet for his Jaygee Industries incense company. He has used the Jaygee name, the Gurugee name, and the Bangalore Incense name. I ordered a few items from his online store, but encountered payment problems, so contacted Javgee, and made arrangements to pay him direct. He later assured me that his website should now accept payments by PayPal from outside of India. Anyway, along with my order he sent me a bunch of samples, including a set of incense under the Gurugee brand name which have a Chakra theme. The set has more than a passing resemblance to Prabhuji's Gifts Chakra series, which is no coincidence because Jaygee did make that series for them. The Chakra series is not currently on his website, though he tells me it will be available from Wednesday onwards. Meanwhile there's some information on the set available on IndiaMart.
The Manipura Chakra is located in the navel, and is considered the body's energy centre, which gives confidence and drive, or, as it says on Gurugee's Manipura Chakra packet, puts "light in your eyes and fire in your belly". Scents which are associated with helping self-confidence are bright, uplifting citric scents like lemon and grapefruit; and spicy or fiery fragrances, such as clove, cinnamon, and ginger. The packet says it contains cinnamon, with minty lavender, and sandalwood; which contains some elements associated with Manipura scents, along with interesting twists such as lavender.
The sticks are hand rolled from a soft, slightly moist paste onto a plain bamboo splint. There is a warm traditional Indian masala incense scent on the stick: slightly woody and spicy with some warm wool which I tend to associate with halmaddi, though could also be oil-soaked sandalwood. There is a gentle floral fragrance on top, with gentle yet warming spicy elements working as heart notes.
There is a pleasant, traditional masala fragrance on the burn, echoing the scents on the stick. It's warm, woody, and spicy. The scents tend to congregate at the lower end of the range, so it's more woody base notes, and few balancing top notes, which gives it a slightly muddled and muddy feel. Not ugly at all, just not balanced, and not clear. There are some violet and lavender notes in the mix, though they are faint. I'm not getting much in the way of energy or fire. Indeed, more the opposite - this feels somewhat calming and relaxing; which could be the effect of the lavender and the sandalwood.
All in all it is an attractive incense burn, though it feels to me more of an everyday relaxing fragrance than a Chakra incense to help with meditation, especially if wanting to build up energy. But I'm not a Chakra practitioner, so I couldn't judge this incense on those terms. It's just that I find it somewhat calming rather than enlivening, and I find the specific scents are too bundled together at the base end to assist me with focusing on the fragrance. This feels more like a background incense. For me, the Chakra aspects to this are a distraction. As a general incense used for everyday purposes, this works just fine.
The sticks are hand rolled from a soft, slightly moist paste onto a plain bamboo splint. There is a warm traditional Indian masala incense scent on the stick: slightly woody and spicy with some warm wool which I tend to associate with halmaddi, though could also be oil-soaked sandalwood. There is a gentle floral fragrance on top, with gentle yet warming spicy elements working as heart notes.
There is a pleasant, traditional masala fragrance on the burn, echoing the scents on the stick. It's warm, woody, and spicy. The scents tend to congregate at the lower end of the range, so it's more woody base notes, and few balancing top notes, which gives it a slightly muddled and muddy feel. Not ugly at all, just not balanced, and not clear. There are some violet and lavender notes in the mix, though they are faint. I'm not getting much in the way of energy or fire. Indeed, more the opposite - this feels somewhat calming and relaxing; which could be the effect of the lavender and the sandalwood.
All in all it is an attractive incense burn, though it feels to me more of an everyday relaxing fragrance than a Chakra incense to help with meditation, especially if wanting to build up energy. But I'm not a Chakra practitioner, so I couldn't judge this incense on those terms. It's just that I find it somewhat calming rather than enlivening, and I find the specific scents are too bundled together at the base end to assist me with focusing on the fragrance. This feels more like a background incense. For me, the Chakra aspects to this are a distraction. As a general incense used for everyday purposes, this works just fine.
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| Discussed on Reddit in 2022 |
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