page_title: Incense in India
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Incense in India / History
caption_attribution_description: தமிழ்: துளைகளுடைய பானை - தொல் பொருட்காட்சிச்சாலை, யாழ்ப்பாணம்
context_page_description: India is the world's main incense producing country, and is a healthy exporter to other countries. Incense burning has taken place in India for thousands of years, and India exported the idea to China and Japan, and other Asian countries.
  The main method of burning incense in India is the incense stick or agarbathi. The basic ingredients of an incense stick are bamboo sticks, paste, and the perfume ingredients – which traditionally would be a masala, though more commonly is a solvent of perfumes and/or essential oils. After the base paste has been applied to the bamboo stick, it is either, in the traditional method, while still moist, immediately rolled into the masala, or, more commonly, left for several days to dry, and then dipped into the scented solvent.
  Various resins, such as amber, myrrh, frankincense, and halmaddi are used in traditional masala incense, usually as a fragrant binding ingredient, and these will add their distinctive fragrance to the finished incense. Some resins, such as gum Arabic, may be used where it is desirable for the binding agent to have no fragrance of its own.
context_section_description: The oldest source on incense is the Vedas, specifically, the Atharva-veda and the Rigveda. Incense-burning was used both to create pleasing aromas and a medicinal tool. Its use in medicine is considered the first phase of Ayurveda, which uses incense as an approach to healing. Incense-making was thus almost exclusively done by monks.
  The specific knowledge of incense as a healing tool was assimilated into the religious practices of the time – early Hinduism. As Hinduism matured and Buddhism was founded in India, incense became an integral part of Buddhism as well. Around 200 CE, a group of wandering Buddhist monks introduced incense stick making to China.
caption: Ancient pot with holes used for burning incense
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