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Friday, 22 April 2016

Sandalwood

Sandalwood is the name of a class of woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for use. Both the wood and the oil produce a distinctive fragrance that has been highly valued for centuries. Consequently, species of these slow-growing trees have suffered over-harvesting in the past century.


Santalum paniculatum (ʻiliahi), Hawai's.

True Sandalwoods

Sandalwoods are medium-sized hemiparasitic trees, and part of the same botanical family as European mistletoe. Notable members of this group are Indian sandalwood (Santalum album) and Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) others in the genus also have fragrant wood. These are found in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, and other Pacific Islands.


A closeup of sandal saplings.

  • S. album is a threatened species indigenous to South India, and grows in the Western Ghat and a few other mountain ranges such as the Kalrayan and Shevaroy Hills. Although sandalwood trees in India, Pakistan, and Nepal are government-owned and their harvest is controlled, many trees are illegally cut down. Sandalwood oil prices have risen to $2,000 per kg recently. Red sanders is endemic in Seshachalam, Veliganda, Lankamala, and Palakonda hill ranges, distributed in districts of Kadapa, Chittoor and Kurnool in Rayalaseema region and parts of Nellore and Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, Mysore region of Karnataka (formerly Mysore), and marayoor forest in Kerala, southern India is high in quality. New plantations were created with international aid in Tamil Nadu for economic exploitation. In Kununurra in Western Australia, Indian sandalwood is grown on a large scale.
Santalum album.

  • S. ellipticum, S. freycinetianum and S. paniculatum, the Hawaiian sandalwood (ʻiliahi), were also used and considered high quality. These three species were exploited between 1790 and 1825 before the supply of trees ran out (a fourth species, S. haleakalae, occurs only in subalpine areas and was never exported). Although S. freycinetianum and S. paniculatum are relatively common today, they have not regained their former abundance or size, and S. ellipticum remains rare.
  • S. spicatum is used by aromatherapists and perfumers. The concentration differs considerably from other Santalum species. In the 1840s, sandalwood was Western Australia’s biggest export earner. Oil was distilled for the first time in 1875, and by the turn of the 20th century, production of Australian sandalwood oil was intermittent. However, in the late 1990s, Western Australian sandalwood oil enjoyed a revival and by 2009 had peaked at more than 20,000 kg (44,000 lb) per year – much of which went to the fragrance industries in Europe. Although overall production has decreased, by 2011 a significant percentage of its production was heading to the chewing tobacco industry in India alongside Indian sandalwood – the chewing tobacco market being the largest market for both oils in 2012.
  • Other species: Commercially, various other species, not belonging to Santalum species, are also used as sandalwood. Pterocarpus santalinus, Telugu: రక్తచందనము (raktachandanamu), Malayalam രക്തചന്ദനം (raktachandhanam), Tamil சிவப்புச்சந்தனம் (ciwappuchchandanam), red sanders, or red sandalwood, is a species of Pterocarpus native to India.
Various unrelated plants with similarly scented wood or oil include:
  • Adenanthera pavonina - sandalwood tree, red or false red sandalwood
  • Baphia nitida - camwood, also known as African sandalwood
  • Eremophila mitchellii - sandalwood; false sandalwood (also sandalbox)
  • Myoporum platycarpum - sandalwood; false sandalwood
  • Myoporum sandwicense - bastard sandalwood, false sandalwood
  • Osyris lanceolata - African sandalwood
  • Osyris tenuifolia - east African sandalwood

Production

Producing commercially valuable sandalwood with high levels of fragrance oils requires Santalum trees to be a minimum of 15 years old (S. album) the age at which they will be harvested in Western Australia the yield, quality and volume are still to be clearly understood. Australia likely will be the largest producer of S. album by 2018, the majority grown around Kununurra, Western Australia. Western Australian sandalwood is also grown in plantations in its traditional growing area in the wheatbelt east of Perth, where more than 15,000 ha (37,000 acres) are in plantations. Currently, Western Australian sandalwood is only wild harvested and can achieve upwards of AU$16,000 per tonne, which has sparked a growing illegal trade speculated to be worth AU$2.5 million in 2012.


Sandalwood leaf.
Sandalwood is expensive compared to other types of woods therefore to maximize profit sandalwood is harvested by removing the entire tree instead of sawing it down at the trunk close to ground level. This way wood from the stump and root, which possess high levels of sandalwood oil, can also be processed and sold.
Uses
Fragrance
Sandalwood oil, has a distinctive soft, warm, smooth, creamy, and milky precious-wood scent. It imparts a long-lasting, woody base to perfumes from the oriental, woody, fougère, and chypre families, as well as a fixative to floral and citrus fragrances. When used in smaller proportions in a perfume, it acts as a fixative, enhancing the longevity of other, more volatile, materials in the composite. Last but not least, sandalwood is a key ingredient in the "floriental" (floral-ambery), fragrance family – when combined with white florals such as jasmine, ylang ylang, gardenia, plumeria, orange blossom, tuberose etc.
Sandalwood oil in India is widely used in the cosmetic industry. The main source of true sandalwood, S. album, is a protected species, and demand for it cannot be met. Many species of plants are traded as "sandalwood". The genus Santalum has more than 19 species. Traders often accept oil from closely related species, as well as from unrelated plants such as West Indian sandalwood (Amyris balsamifera) in the family Rutaceae or bastard sandalwood (Myoporum sandwicense, Myoporaceae). However, most woods from these alternative sources lose their aroma within a few months or years.
Isobornyl cyclohexanol is a synthetic fragrance chemical produced as an alternative to the natural product.
Sandalwood (S. album) essential oil.
Hinduism
Sandalwood paste is integral to rituals and ceremonies, to mark religious utensils, and to decorate the icons of the deities. It is also distributed to devotees, who apply it to their foreheads or the necks and chests. Preparation of the paste is a duty fit only for the pure, so is entrusted in temples and during ceremonies only to priests.
Sandalwood carved statue of lord Ganesha.
The paste is prepared by grinding wood by hand upon granite slabs shaped for the purpose. With the slow addition of water, a thick paste results (called kalabham "കളഭം" in Malayalam language and "gandha" ಗಂಧ in Kannada, which is mixed with saffron or other such pigments to make chandanamChandanam, further mixed with herbs, perfumes, pigments, and some other compounds, results in javadhuKalabham, chandanam, and javadhu are dried and used as kalabham powder, chandanam powder, and javadhu powder, respectively. Chandanampowder is very popular in India and is also used in Nepal. In Tirupati after religious tonsure, sandalwood paste is applied to protect the skin. In Hinduism and Ayurveda, sandalwood is thought to bring one closer to the divine. Thus, it is one of the most used holy elements in Hindu and Vedic societies.
Buddhism

Sandalwood is mentioned in various suttas of the Pāli Canon. In some Buddhist traditions, sandalwood is considered to be of the padma (lotus) group and attributed to Amitabha Buddha. Sandalwood scent is believed by some to transform one's desires and maintain a person's alertness while in meditation. It is also one of the more popular scents used when offering incense to the Buddha and the guru.

Islam

In sufi tradition, sandalwood paste is applied on the sufi’s grave by the disciples as a mark of devotion. It is practiced particularly among the Indian Subcontinent disciples. In the Tamil culture irrespective of religious identity, sandalwood paste or powder is applied to the graves of sufis as a mark of devotion and respect.

Chinese and Japanese religions

Sandalwood, along with agarwood is the most commonly used incense material by the Chinese and Japanese in worship and various ceremonies. However, Taoists are forbidden from using sandalwood (as well as benzoin resin, frankincense, foreign produced) incense and instead either use agarwood, or better still Acronychia pedunculata, in worship.

Zoroastrians

Zoroastrians offer sandalwood twigs to the firekeeping priests who offer the sandalwood to the fire to keep the fire burning. Sandalwood is offered to all of the three grades of fire in the fire temple, including the Atash Dadgahs. Sandalwood is not offered to the divo, a homemade lamp. Often, money is offered to the mobad (for religious expenditures) along with the sandalwood. Sandalwood is called sukhar in the Zoroastrian community. The sandalwood in the fire temple is often more expensive to buy than at a Zoroastrian store. It is often a source of income for the fire temple.

Medicine

Sandalwood essential oil was popular in herbal medicine up to 1920–1930, mostly as a urogenital (internal) and skin (external) antiseptics. Its main component is santalol (about 75%). It is used in aromatherapy and to prepare soaps.

Technology

Due to its low fluorescence and optimal refractive index, sandalwood oil is often employed as an immersion oil within ultraviolet and fluorescence microscopy.

Distillation

Sandalwood is distilled in a four-step process, incorporating boiling, steaming, condensation, and separation. The process is known as steam distillation and is widely carried out industrially at Kannauj, India.

Food

Australian Aboriginals eat the seed kernels, nuts, and fruit of local sandalwoods, such as quandong (S. acuminatum).

References

  1. ^ Asian Regional Workshop (1998). Santalum album. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
  2. ^ Wagner, W. L., D. R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer (1990). Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
  3. ^ Rock, J. F. (1913). The Indigenous Trees of the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu.
  4. ^ "Illegal sandalwood trade growing in WA - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
  5. ^ Tony Page, Hanington Tate, Joseph Tungon, Michael Tabi and Phyllis Kamasteia (2012). "Vanuatu sandalwood: growers’ guide for sandalwood production in Vanuatu". (PDF). Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. p. 47. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  6. ^ "Sandalwood - spiritual".
  7. ^ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/search_results.html?cx=015061908441090246348%3Adj4lxnh4dda&cof=FORID%3A9%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=sandalwood&sa=Search
  8. ^ "Now, All roads lead to Mumbai's Mahim Dargah fair", dnaindia.com. 18 December 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2013. *Khubchandani, Lachman K. (1995). "The supernatural in nature Sindhi tradition". Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Retrieved 21 April2013. *Bayly, Susan (2004). Saints, Goddesses and Kings). Cambridge University Press. pp. 144–147. ISBN 9780521891035. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  9. ^ The Ming Dynasty Taoist manual 《天皇至道太清玉冊》 states: 「降真香,乃祀天帝之靈香也。除此之外,沉速次之。信靈香可以達天帝之靈。所忌者,安息香、乳香、檀香,外夷所合成之香,天律有禁,切宜慎之。」 ["Acronychia pedunculata is the spiritual incense of offering to the Heavenly Emperor. Apart from this type, agarwood/aloeswood (Aquilaria malaccensis) then Aquilaria sinensis are the next best. It is believed that this spiritual incense can ascend to reach the spirit of the Heavenly Emperor. Those that are to be avoided are benzoin resin, frankincense, sandalwood, foreign produced incense that violate the Heavenly Law and so one must be careful to observe this."]
  10. ^ "The Good Oi" (PDF)www.fpc.wa.gov.au. The Forest Products Commission, Western Australia. Retrieved 18 November 2014.

Further Reading


External Links


Wikipedia 

What Are the Benefits of Juicing Vegetables and Fruits?

What Are the Benefits of Juicing Vegetables and Fruits?
Juicing is an easy way to consume ample nutrition. Photo Credit Dejan Ristovski/iStock/Getty Images
Juice extractors grind food into small pieces that are spun to extract juice from the pulp. Juicing is a way of supplementing your diet with the valuable nutrients found in whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Whether you are fasting, dieting or supplementing an already healthy diet, juicing can offer a wide range of vitamins and minerals to support your health.

Types of Juicing

What Are the Benefits of Juicing Vegetables and Fruits?
You can juice many types of fruit and vegetables. Photo Credit gece33/iStock/Getty Images
Various types of juicing can accomplish different things for your body. Juicing vegetables provides ample vitamins and minerals, but very little effect on your blood sugar, as vegetables are generally low in sugar. Juicing fruits provides a very tasty treat, packed with nutrition, but high in sugar content, as one small glass of juiced apples will require four to five apples in total, more than 350 calories and 85 grams of sugar, according to the USDA National Nutrient Database. Juicing grasses such as barley, oat and wheat grass are great ways to get the rich chlorophyll found in deep green foods, along with other minerals, according to the January 2011 issue of "Nutrients."

Significance on Health

What Are the Benefits of Juicing Vegetables and Fruits?
Juicing vegetables. Photo Credit AwakenedEye/iStock/Getty Images
Juicing is a great avenue of supplemental health support if you are not able to consume adequate amounts of actual fruits and vegetables. You may not like the taste or texture of the actual foods, so juicing them and mixing them together may make you more apt to consume fruits and vegetables you normally wouldn't eat, according to Doctoroz.com. If you are on a liquid diet for a specific health issue, juicing is an optimal way to support your overall health.

Benefits of Fruits

What Are the Benefits of Juicing Vegetables and Fruits?
Fruits are great for flavor and color. Photo Credit Flufi/iStock/Getty Images
Fruit is very rich in flavor and color, and can create very satiating juices that support your overall health and well being. Fruit juice is sweet, and provides a full and satisfied feeling as you enjoy it. Fruit juicing is optimal for children, as children enjoy sweet flavors, and will consume ample nutrients as they sip a freshly juiced drink. A study in the 2010 issue of the journal "Health Promotion," states that juice provides valuable nutrition to young adults, and consumption of 100 percent juice is associated with lower consumption of total fat and added sugars.

Benefits of Vegetable Juicing

What Are the Benefits of Juicing Vegetables and Fruits?
Vegetables provide nutrition. Photo Credit Olmarmar/iStock/Getty Images
Juicing vegetables makes ample nutrition available through a quick and easily accessible avenue. Sipping an 8-ounce glass of spinach, broccoli, kale and celery will provide more than 45 flavonoids, with kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, according to a study in a 2009 issue of the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemisty." These flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in a way that gives kale and other deep green foods a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, according to Nutrition-and-You.com. Non starchy vegetables, such as leafy greens, celery and broccoli, juiced with herbs, such as mint or cilantro, can create a health-boosting tonic without a major impact on the blood sugar.

Points to Consider

The juices from fruits and starchy vegetables such as carrots or beets can contain a lot of sugar, which may be harmful for diabetics and can contribute to weight gain. Use juicing as a supplemental tool to your diet. Too much juicing can create symptoms such as diarrhea and cramping, suggests the American Cancer Society. Juice vegetables for the larger portion of your drink, then add a small fruit item to taste.
www.livestrong.com

Why Is It Important to Maintain a Healthy Body?

A healthy body sets the stage for your day-to-day well-being and how well you will age. Maintaining fitness through good nutrition and exercise promotes efficient circulation, digestion and musculoskeletal strength. This allows you to live an active life, and a healthy immune system helps you ward off disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, healthy body benefits extend to mood elevation and greater mental alertness, as well as reduced chronic disease risk.


Why Is It Important to Maintain a Healthy Body?
A woman is jogging outside. Photo Credit lzf/iStock/Getty Images.


Increase Well-Being

When you keep your metabolism working well, you enjoy greater energy and fewer aches and pains. Adequate vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, fatty acids and carbohydrates are needed to facilitate all of your body processes. Nightly rest periods allow your body to repair cells and perform other maintenance activities. A sleep or dietary deficiency can deprive your body of these essentials and create fatigue. Getting enough nutrition, on the other hand, leaves you mentally and physically sharp. Regular exercise utilizes your healthy bones, muscles, heart and lungs, preparing them to meet daily demands.

Reduce Injuries and Infections

When your body reaches a consistent plateau of health, it is more likely to hold up under unusual stress and less likely to give way to infection. A daily fitness program that incorporates aerobic exercise and strengthening of the bones and major muscle groups helps you avoid pulled muscles, joint sprains and bone fractures. Along with a diet rich in vitamin C, restful sleep supports your immune system. The National Sleep Foundation reports that you are less susceptible to colds and flu if you don’t have a sleep deficit, especially if you are an older adult.

Maintain Weight

Staying fit means less downtime and more time moving and burning calories, which helps you maintain your weight. According to the American Heart Association, 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week will help to balance your calorie intake from an average healthy diet. Eating low-fat foods that have strong vitamin, mineral and fiber content will help you control your weight as they encourage a healthy cardiovascular system.

Prevent Chronic Disease

A diet that is low in sodium and solid fats preserves normal blood pressure and arterial health to reduce your risk for heart disease, the number-one cause of death in America. Staying at a healthy body weight also decreases cardiovascular risk, along with the chances for developing type 2 diabetes and many forms of cancer. Because these illnesses form over time, maintaining your physical health over the course of your life is your best shot at prevention.
www.livestrong.com

Healthy Meats to Eat for Breakfast

While you might love the taste of greasy sausage and bacon in the morning, your body probably doesn't. Most breakfast meats are full of saturated fat, calories and salt. Instead, create a healthy breakfast that will give you energy and help you feel good throughout the day. For a healthy breakfast that will keep you going, the Mayo Clinic suggests combining whole grains, low-fat dairy, fruits and vegetables, and low-fat protein, which could include "lean slices of meat and poultry."
Healthy Meats to Eat for Breakfast
Traditional breakfasts are full of saturated fat and cholesterol.Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images.

Ham

Choose natural ham over the processed kind and you can include it in a healthy breakfast. The American Dietetic Association recommends a simple breakfast of a whole-grain English muffin with a slice of lean ham and some low-fat cheese. The American Council on Exercise provides a healthier version of a strata in its Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole recipe, which makes a well-balanced breakfast. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and oil a large baking dish with cooking spray. Whisk 4 eggs, 4 egg whites and 1 cup nonfat milk. Add 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard, 1 tsp. rosemary, ¼ tsp. pepper, 5 cups spinach, 4 cups cubed whole-grain bread, 1 cup diced ham steak, ½ cup chopped roasted red peppers and ¾ cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese to the egg mixture. Mix everything together and put the mixture into the baking dish, pressing to make the mixture flat. Cover and cook for 40 to 45 minutes. Uncover the casserole, add a little more cheese to the top and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Poultry

Poultry is generally low in fat if grilled or baked, and you can add pieces of it to omelets. The American Dietetic Association suggests wrapping one to two slices of turkey and some low-fat cheese into a tortilla. Turkey sausage and bacon are other options to incorporate poultry into breakfast.

Homemade Sausage

Control what goes into your breakfast meat by making the Mayo Clinic's recipe for homemade sausage. Combine ½ lb. lean ground pork loin and ½ lb. ground turkey breast. Add 1 tsp. each of sugar, dry mustard, sage, black pepper and onion powder. If you like a spicy flavor, the Mayo Clinic notes you can add ½ tsp. red pepper flakes. Mix the spices into the meat and make 12 flat sausage patties. Oil a pan with cooking spray and heat it over medium heat. Put the sausage patties in the pan, cover and cook them for about 5 minutes for each side until they are brown and cooked all the way through. Two of these patties contain 102 calories, 3 g fat and 1 g saturated fat, according to the Mayo Clinic.
www.livestrong.com

Workbench

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By Christopher Schwarz

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Article explains how to build a rock-solid workbench for just $175, and that price includes the lumber, hardware and vises. The frame is made using mortise-and-tenon and a modified bed bolt. The top is 3" thick and has dog holes and a European-style face vise.

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AGARBATTI (LICENSE OF INDIA)

India has a rich tradition of using incense in many social and religious occasions since time immemorial. Incense sticks, also known as agarbathi (or agarbatti derived from Sanskrit word Agaravarthi, gara = odour, agar = aroma, varthi = wound ) and joss sticks, in which an incense paste is rolled or moulded around a bamboo stick, is one of the main forms of incense in India. The bamboo method originated in India, and is distinct from the Nepal/Tibet and Japanese methods of stick making in which a bamboo stick is not used. Though the method is also used in the west, particularly in America, it is strongly associated with India. Other main forms of incense are cones and logs and Benzoin resin ( In Sanskrit Saambraani), which are incense paste formed into pyramid shapes or log shapes, and then dried.
Incense being sold in an Indian market in Bangalore.
A uniform and codified system of incense-making first began in India. Although Vedic texts mention the use of incense for masking odors and creating a pleasurable smell, the modern system of organized incense-making was likely created by the medicinal priests of the time. Thus, modern, organized incense-making is intrinsically linked to the Ayurvedic medical system in which it is rooted.
History
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.
Ancient pot with holes used for burning incense.
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 AD, a group of wandering Buddhist monks introduced incense-making to China.
Ingredients

The basic ingredients are bamboo sticks, paste (generally made of charcoal dust and joss/jiggit/gum/tabu powder - an adhesive made from the bark of litsea glutinosa and other trees), and the perfume ingredients - which would be a masala (mixed) powder of ground ingredients. The bamboo stick is rolled into the masala, or is sometimes rolled into a perfume liquid consisting of synthetic ingredients. Stick machines are sometimes used, which coat the sticks with paste and perfume, though the bulk of production is done by hand-rolling at home. There are about 5,000 incense companies in India which take raw un-perfumed sticks hand-rolled by approximately 200,000 women working part-time at home, apply their own brand of perfume, and package the sticks for sale. An experienced home-worker can produce 4,000 raw sticks a day. There are about 25 main companies, who together account for up to 30% of the market, and around 500 of the companies, including a significant number of the main companies, are based in Bangalore.


Various ingredients used in incense.

Halmaddi

Halmaddi or mattipal is an ingredient which forms the basis of the 'sticky' quality in some hand-rolled incense sticks, a rare and very desired Nag Champa ingredient. It is an earth coloured liquid resin drawn from the Ailanthus triphysa tree; molasses-like when it is fresh and hardens to a brittle resin with a distinctive balsamic smell when it ages. Some incense makers mix it with honey in order to keep it pliable.

Ayurvedic principle

In accordance with Ayurvedic principles, the ingredients that go into incense-making may be categorized into five classes: ether (fruits), for example star anise; water (stems and branches), for example sandalwood, aloeswood, cedar wood, cassia, frankincense myrrh, and borneol; earth (roots), for example turmeric,  vetiver, ginger, costus root, valerian, Indian spikenard; fire (flowers), for example clove and air (leaves), for example patchouli.

Masala

Masala is a spice mixture. Masala incenses are made by blending several solid scented ingredients into a paste and then rolling that paste onto a bamboo core stick. These incenses usually contain little or no liquid scents (which can evaporate or diminish over time).

Dhoop

Dhoops are another masala sub-group. They are an extruded incense, lacking a core bamboo stick. Many dhoops have very concentrated scents and put out a lot of smoke when burned. The most well-known dhoop is probably Chandan Dhoop. It contains a high percentage of sandalwood.

Dipped

Most incenses are made by dipping an unscented "blank" (non-perfumed stick) into a mixture of perfumes and/or essential oils. These blanks usually contain a binding resin (sometimes sandalwood) that holds the ingredients together.

Dhupa
For most Indians, incense remains an important part of the daily puja ritual, which is a religious offering performed by all Hindus to their deities, especially during the beginning of a new venture, or to commemorate some special occasion. The aspect of the ritual known as dhupa, involves the offering of incense before the picture of a deity, as a token of respect. The smoke is believed to ward off demons and cleanse the air around. They are fragmented.
sādhu will regularly burn incense in this fashion, as a gesture to Agni, the God of Fire. For the sadhu, the world is alive with unseen forces that must be continually propitiated with offerings and cleansing rituals. Their sacred fireplaces, known as dhuni, perform the same function as incense, on a larger scale, which is to transform matter into aether. Burning incense is thus a reminder, of the sacred power of fire to transform, and the ultimate journey of all physical matter towards spirit.
Production

The state of Karnataka, referred to as the Capital of Agarbathi (Incense Sticks), is the leading producer of the agarbathi in India, with Mysore and Bangalore, being the main manufacturing centres. The Mysore region is recognised as a pioneer in the activity of agarbathi manufacturing and this is one of the main cluster activities that exist in the city. This is because it has a natural reserve of forest products especially Sandalwood, which provide for the base material used in production.

References

  1. a b c d Oller, David. "Incense Making". Retrieved 2013-08-02.
  2. ^ "History of Incense" Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  3. ^ "How To Make Agarbatti (Incense of India) at home?".
  4. ^ Jonathan Mitchell, Christopher Coles (2011). Markets and Rural Poverty: Upgrading in Value Chains. IDRC. p. 50. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  5. ^ Malcolm Harper (2010). Inclusive Value Chains: A Pathway Out of Poverty. World Scientific. p. 249. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  6. ^ Mark Holmström (3 Dec 2007). South Indian Factory Workers: Their Life and Their World. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  7. ^ B. Sudhakara Reddy (1 Jan 1998). Urban Energy Systems. Concept Publishing Company. p. 84. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  8. ^ [1], (taken from interview with Bhalendra Sunduram , during the 5th International Conference on Ayurveda. Bangalore, June 2012).
  9. ^ Chris Devonshire-Ellis (2012). Doing Business in India,  Springer. p. 154. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  10. ^ "Agarbathi" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  11. ^ "Diagnostic study artisan agarbathi (INCENSE STICK) clutster Mysore (Karnataka)" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-04-09.


Wikipedia 

GERMAN WORK BOX

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German Work Box Digital Download

By David Thiel



Format: Download 
Simple to build, mobile and packed with storage space, this toolbox stores your tools and keeps the ones you're using at the ready. With step photos, cutting list and illustrations. ALSO: A closer look at the Miller Dowel, used to build the toolbox.

For further information log on website:

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Fasting for Runners

Author BY   ANDREA CESPEDES  Food is fuel, especially for serious runners who need a lot of energy. It may seem counterintuiti...