Our Heritage

A trading house is only as good as its sources. Each of ours was chosen because it does one thing better than anywhere else: a town that has distilled attar for centuries, or a district that has spun brass for generations. The whole route exists to bring those things together.

How the record works

When a lot arrives in Nadiad it is logged with three things: where it was made, what it is made of, and when. That origin goes onto the product page as a named place, and the lot number goes onto the label. The table at the end of this page is not typed out by hand. It is read live from the catalogue, so it always matches what is on sale.

The principal centres

Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh

India’s attar town. Flowers, roots and even baked river clay are distilled in copper degs over wood fires, and the vapour is caught in sandalwood oil through bamboo pipes. This is the deg-and-bhapka method, used here long before steam extraction. Our rose, khus and mitti attars come from here.

Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh

The brass city. Kalash, diyas, thalis, temple bells and panchpatra are spun, cast and hammered in family workshops, and most of our puja brass is made here. We buy it unlacquered, so it ages the way brass should.

Gujarat

Home. Janamaz, kufi caps, wooden tasbih, brass burners and lanterns are made in the state, and agate misbaha beads are cut in Khambhat, a town that has worked agate for well over a thousand years. Every order in the catalogue is packed and dispatched from Nadiad.

Tamil Nadu

Candles and cotton wicks from Sivakasi, sambrani cups from Tirunelveli, camphor from Chennai, and the conch shell, which is cut and polished at Rameswaram on the Gulf of Mannar.

Kerala and Karnataka

Ayurvedic oils and powders are blended in Kerala and steeped in cold-pressed coconut and sesame oil. Sandalwood agarbatti and malas come from Mysuru, and halmaddi dhoop from Bengaluru.

Oman, the Horn of Africa and the Levant

Agarwood and bakhoor come in through Muscat, graded by resin density and documented under CITES Appendix II. Frankincense comes from Dhofar, myrrh from Somaliland, and mineral salt, mud and olive-and-laurel soap from the Dead Sea trade. Olive wood rosaries are carved in Bethlehem.

The full record

Every origin currently named in the catalogue, with what comes from there and how many products carry it.