HomeDhuni Incense
There was an incense and there was The Incense, the only one and the best – Dhuni….
“Dhuni incense has been an intense labor of love from start to finish. As long term travelers to India we spent years scouring the heartland for incenses of all types, always coming close but never truly discovering something we felt was the real deal, an incense that would capture the very essence of a long tradition, now almost extinct in India. Finally, one unlikely day, the Eureka moment arrived. Sitting on a non descript street sipping chai we smelt the first waft of an incense that seemed too good to be true: woody, utterly pure and natural, a magical near mystical blend of oils, ground resins, fragrant botanicals and more. Instantly, we set about finding the origin and the rest…. is history.”
This is how Dhuni Incense came into existence. It enjoyed a great following in the West and received many positive reviews on Olfactory Rescue Service, the leading incense blog.
The founders of the brand, a young British couple, much like ourselves, spent a great deal of time traveling in India and trying thousands of sticks from different manufacturers. Until they found something raw, gigantic, fresh, out of the box: some Dhuni Sticks were massive and thick, with three sticks making a 15-gram packet. The incense was full of essential oils and fragrant resins, as if the person making it wanted to prove their devotion to God through each stick. The maker of the incense did not differentiate between incense making and their spiritual practice; they were absorbed into the creation of the incense, which was their prayer and meditation.
This is what founders of Dhuni were saying on their web-site in 2013:
“Luxurious hand rolled natural incense sticks from India…
- Blended by a legendary Indian master incense maker
- Entirely handmade through every aspect of the process
- No chemicals or glues of any kind
- Sumptuous blends conveying the essence of traditional Indian agarbatti
- Perhaps the last true artisan incense still being produced
- Excellent customer service and shipping options
- Quite simply the most extraordinary olfactory experience of your life
Why are you called dhuni?
The name dhuni means ‘sacred hearth’: the fireplace around which India’s holy men sit and offer plant materials to mother earth. dhuni Natural Incense is, we sincerely believe, the only place in the Western world where its possible to buy incense of this quality and, trust us, it’s almost impossible to find now in India either.
The Essence of Bhakti
These long burning joss sticks are a living tradition, the result of incredible plant knowledge, blending know-how, and artisanal skill. Conveying the essence of bhakti – devotion – these sticks convey a reverence for Mother Earth and all her creations, and to light a match to one is to recreate in miniature the sadhus fireplace, into which objects are thrown in consecration, and to purify the animate world.
Protecting an Endangered Tradition
We offer them to you with love, and with the hope that this endangered tradition find means of continuation in India. Overtaken by mass production, and a huge influx of low quality ecologically harmful imitations, the Indian agarbatti market is under threat. Traditional incense made properly is a real rarity now, and it’s our dream that Dhuni goes a small way to helping it survive. In the future we hope to do more for the protection and sustainability of this industry but for now, just buying these sticks will help.”
Dhuni started in 2010 and ended its magnificent existence in 2013. It was like a shooting star, so bright and enormous. We don’t know the reasons why the company ceased its operations but we are grateful to the founders of Dhuni for their service to humanity and a rare gift they brought to the West.