The word ‘Attar’ or ‘Ittar’ comes from an ancient Persian word ‘attar’, ‘otto’ or ‘ottar’, that means perfume, fragrance or scent.
Attar are prepared products of essence of flowers, herbs, spices and other natural materials over the base oil by traditional hydro-distillation method with deg and bhapka. It is being made and used over centuries in India especially at.
(Picture Above: Diagrammatic representation of Deg-Bhapka Distillation method)
Attar is quite ancient in India; it’s more than 5,000 years old. We find mentions of fragrance and perfume in the olden Indian epics and Granths..
(Picture Above : Bhapka (collector) containing essential oils after distillation process kept for few days to mature)