Kolkata's historic ittar traders whose customers included Nehru and Tagore

The shiny beautiful glass bottles hold perfumes of different colours with names in Urdu most Ittar-lovers remember by heart. Khash, Shamama, Hayati, Firdous, Gulab, Bailey, Apsara, Saba, Mushk to name a few.

Kolkata: Within a 100-meter radius of Kolkata's historic Nakhoda Mosque on Chitpur and Zakaria Street is the historic ittar (perfume) market. Around 150 years old, the market has its roots close to the revolt of 1857 after some perfumers from Lucknow had moved to Kolkata.

The shiny beautiful glass bottles hold perfumes of different colours with names in Urdu most Ittar-lovers remember by heart. Khash, Shamama, Hayati, Firdous, Gulab, Bailey, Apsara, Saba, Mushk to name a few. The perfume shops at Chitpur and Zakaria Street and Maulana Shaukat Ali Lane in Kolkata's Big Bazaar fill the entire area with fragrance.

The oldest perfume shop in Kolkata was owned by Haji Khuda Bakhsh Nabi Bakhsh of the yore who shifted here in 1824 on Maulana Shaukat Ali Road. The current owners of this shop are Niazuddin Allah Bakhsh and his nephew. In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Niazuddin said that his ancestors came to Kolkata from Lucknow in 1824 because Lucknow was in a state of political crisis at that time.

"Our ancestors then moved to Kolkata and started this business here. The shop has been in existence since 1824. I am the eighth generation and have continued the trade," Niazuddin said. His perfumes range between Rs 50 to Rs 4,000. "We heard from our grandfather that in the 1940s, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose used to come to our shop with his friends. He was very fond of ittar. Apart from him, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru used to come to our shop whenever he came to Kolkata," he added.

Niazuddin said great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was one of their famous buyers. "Even today his family is among our regular customers," he said. Asghar Ali Muhammad brothers' perfume shop, located a few steps from Nakhoda Masjid, too is frequented by Bengalis. The Ali brothers came to Kolkata from Lucknow in 1835 and started the business. Muhammad Asif Ali, the sixth generation of Ali brothers, is running it now. Asif said they have a perfume business in Lucknow as well.

Jamaluddin, the owner of Taj brand Sarma and Perfume in Chatpur, said his business is 150 years old and he is the fifth generation running it. He said that the traditional perfume they prepare finds buyers even today as the perfume is being prepared with a slight modification. While the COVID pandemic hit the business, the situation is better now, Asif said.