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Sandalwood in Indian Culture

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Part of the Materials Horizons: From Nature to Nanomaterials book series (MHFNN)

Abstract

The paper speaks about the uses and importance of Indian Sandalwood in Indian culture, namely in Classical Indian Perfumery. India is rightly believed to be the pioneer of the art and science of fragrance/perfumery in the world. Along with her numerous reserves of natural fragrant materials like agarwood, herbs, spices and flowers, Sandalwood, namely from Mysuru, has been honed to produce the world’s finest sandalwood oil extracted by distillation for over a thousand years. The paper talks about how Indian Sandalwood in the form of wood, powder and oil has been employed extensively in Indian incense making and the manufacture of natural Indian ‘Attar’ fragrance extract oil concentrates in Indian perfumery along with its wide usage in Indian spiritual rituals.

Keywords

  • Mysuru
  • Perfumery
  • Indus Valley Civilization
  • Distillation
  • Attar
  • Incense
  • Rituals
  • Tradition

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Iyengar, K. (2022). Sandalwood in Indian Culture. In: Arunkumar, A.N., Joshi, G., Warrier, R.R., Karaba, N.N. (eds) Indian Sandalwood. Materials Horizons: From Nature to Nanomaterials. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6565-3_3

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