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Saturday, 21 March 2026

Vedic Vaani Tambulam Paan



Vedic Vanni is a modern online distribution unit set up in 2013 by two businessmen,  Ashish Gandhi and Mayank Goyal. They sell a full range of puja items, including incense, which they sell under their own brand name. The incense blog ORS came across the website in 2022, bought some of the sticks, and enjoyed them.

They are occasionally talked about on Reddit with a wide spread of opinions, but a constant that - like buying from some of the Vrindavan traders - the quality is variable and inconsistent, and what is in the box may not be what it says on the outside. I've been mildly curious about them, but when looking at their shop and prices, and knowing that they were inconsistent and rebranded from unknown incense makers, I wasn't interested in buying 100gms worth of unknown (and apparently fairly random) monoscent incense for £30 including shipping, when for the same price including shipping I could get 20x20gm packs of different incenses from Vrindavan Bazaar

Regular readers of this blog will know that while I may really enjoy some incenses from rebranders such as Happy Hari, Gokula, and Sai Handicrafts, I am mainly interested in incense (good or bad) from the authentic brand. (Even though matters may be confused these days with a number of traditional Indian brands, such as BIC and (apparently) Goloka, sourcing out of house, and a number of new brands coming along, such as Mangaldeep and (apparently) Calmveda, who from the outset have been outsourcing their incense, there is still a sense that with an authentic brand I am buying a unique product not something off the shelf or "tweaked".) 

Anyway. Yes. Curious about this Vedic Vaani brand, but when looking at the reality wasn't curious enough to spend proper money on large amounts of dubious incense. But Brief Chemistry from Reddit has been generous enough to send me a bunch from a haul he got at the end of last year (2025). And this Tambulam Paan is the first of the bunch I'm looking at. 
  


Tambulam Paan refers to betel leaf. The two words, Tambulam and Paan, appear to mean roughly the same thing  - the preparation of betel leaf for chewing. The paste on the stick is a semi-moist charcoal extruded onto a bamboo splint, and then coated in dark green powder. The scent on the stick is vibrant, tangy, fresh, slightly medicinal, quite green and spicy with some woody base elements. Rather likeable, and somewhat unusual. This is the first betel incense I've come across, though there are a few made, such as by Betala and Aahil. The scent on the scent is quite promising. 

The scent on the burn is pleasant. Warm, gentle, floral and musky. Initially it is a little more conventional than the scent on the stick, though over time the tangy, somewhat sparkly, green notes come through, and at that point it deepens, and needs to be moved a little further away to give it more space and air to develop. I like this. I find it spicy and aromatic. A little balsamic, and with some eucalyptus notes. Perhaps a touch of fresh cannabis leaf, with a whiff of mint. Very cute and likeable, and something a bit different. It doesn't feel 100% natural - there's aldehyde notes, and a general sense of perfume construction. I'm cool with that, though I know some folks get a bit itchy about their incense not being 100% natural. I think it's a decently constructed perfume or attar. And I look forward to trying the other Vedic Vaani branded sticks.    

Available from Vedic Vaani at 100gm for £5.56 plus shipping (at least £25). 


Date: March 2026   Score: 35
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7 comments:

  1. Brief Chemistry21 March 2026 at 07:10

    I like this Incense mainly because it's slightly off the beaten path. It's there for when you want a break from the norm :-)

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    1. That's a good comment. It'll also be a bracing morning freshener.

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  2. Hi there. Brief Chemistry also sent me this incense to try out. I really loved this cuz it has the note of a freshly crushed paan leaf, with a bit soapy, floral, menthol and musky notes.

    This along with their Sacred Atisaurabha Kasturi muck is now on my wishlist!

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    1. Have you tried any other paan incenses, Vid? I'm curious as to what they'd be like.

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    2. Paan scented incenses are quite rare TBH, and this is my first time trying a paan incense. Flourish Fragrances Khus had that prominent paan note with Khus fragrance, Nandita Mantra Meditation also had a very prominent meetha paan note. Goloka Vrindavan Flower had that mild paan note in it.

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    3. I remember there was also a rant about Vedic Vaani incense in r/incense. There was a redditor who had made two posts, calling them out as a shady incense market swindlers as they do not make any of their incenses. He/she linked a post on ORS titled “Forbidden Fruit- now Sweetness” to support his/her conclusion, but I guess the redditor had read halfway through or did not fully understand what Mike was saying. Mike later clarified on that post that they are not trying to say that Vedic Vaani is a scam.

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    4. Ha ha. My gosh, clearly someone with little knowledge of the India-America incense market. If they were American the bulk of what they burned would be from a scammer! It seems to me that only a few true Indian brands get to America, outside of HEM and Satya. I think the general approach of ORS is to review what is available in America. It's kind of a survey of the American market. Or what they would term the "high end" or "curated" sector of the American incense market, which for Indian incense relies a lot on brands which "do not make any of their incenses" (though I note that they have been reviewing Vinasons, which is cool).

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