Kali, Bhairav and Pishach: The Story Behind Our Attar Names
A name is never just a name in Bengal. We name our children after gods, our rivers after goddesses, and our sweets after the people who loved them. So when it came to naming our attars, we did not want names that only describe a smell. We wanted names that carry a power.
Three of our new attars carry three of the strongest names in our tradition: Kali, Bhairav and Pishach. This is the story of each name, why we chose it, and what it means to wear it on your skin.
✦ ✦ ✦
Before it reaches you
Every one of these fragrances was blended by hand, in small batches, with fragrance oils, floral oils and oud from the distilleries of Uttar Pradesh. But there is one more step that makes them different from anything you will find on a shop shelf.
All Daroonjinish attar fragrances have undergone a divination process by a very powerful spiritual master. Each bottle is not only blended. It is blessed with intention before it is sealed and sent to you. That is why we could give them these names.
✦ ✦ ✦
1. Kali: the mother of time
Her name comes from kala, time. Kali is the one who is beyond time, the one who swallows it. She is black like the night sky, her tongue is out, and she wears a garland that would frighten anyone who does not know her. But every Bengali child knows her as Ma. She is fierce because she protects.
In Kolkata, she lives at Kalighat, one of the oldest Shakti Peethas, and she comes home to every para on the new moon night of Kartik, the night of Kali Puja. The flower she loves is the red jaba, the hibiscus. Devotees string 108 of them into a garland for her.
 |
 |
| A Kali Puja pandal in Kolkata. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0 | Kalighat temple at night. Photo: shankar s., CC BY 2.0 |
The Kali attar is our red one. It is deep, warm and unafraid, the scent of a puja room after the lamps are lit and the jaba garland is placed. Wear it on the days you need courage: a hard conversation, a new beginning, a night when you want to feel that someone is standing behind you.
Jaba and aparajita, the flowers of the goddess. Photo: Prabirghose, CC BY-SA 4.0
✦ ✦ ✦
2. Bhairav: the guardian
Bhairav is Shiva in his most fearsome form. His name means the terrible one, but the people who pray to him know him as their protector. In Varanasi, Kaal Bhairav is called the kotwal of Kashi, the guardian of the holy city. Pilgrims go to him for his blessing, because nothing in Kashi happens without his permission.
In Ujjain, his temple stands near the Shipra river, and on festival nights the tall stone deepmalika outside it is lit with lamps from bottom to top. In Kathmandu, a great black stone Bhairav has watched over Durbar Square for centuries. Wherever he is, he stands at the gate.
 |
 |
| Kaal Bhairav, Kathmandu. Photo: Rabin Tuladhar, CC BY-SA 4.0 | The deepmalika at Kal Bhairav, Ujjain. Photo: Utcursch, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
The Bhairav attar is golden and grounding. It is the scent of a temple courtyard at dusk, of smoke rising from the evening aarti, of something old and steady that does not move. Wear it when you want to feel guarded: when you travel, when you start something big, or when you simply want to feel calm and rooted.
Head of Bhairava. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain (CC0)
✦ ✦ ✦
3. Pishach: the keeper of the night
This is the name that makes people stop. In the old stories, the pishach are beings of the night who live where the living do not go: the cremation ground, the dark side of the river, the hours after midnight. In Shaiva tradition they belong to Shiva's own company, the ganas who follow him and Bhairav through the night.
In tantra, the cremation ground is not a place of fear. It is the place where fear itself is burned. At Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi the fires have not gone out for centuries, and the seekers who sit there say that once you have faced the night, nothing can frighten you again.
 |
 |
| Manikarnika Ghat at night. Photo: Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0 | Diyas on the ghats. Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
The Pishach attar is our darkest fragrance. It is magnetic and mysterious, made for the night. We did not name it Pishach to bring fear. We named it so that you can walk into the night without any. Wear it after sunset, for an evening out, or on the nights you want to be the most unforgettable person in the room.
✦ ✦ ✦
Why attar, and why oil
India has worn attar for centuries. In Kannauj, on the banks of the Ganga, families still distil flowers and woods in copper stills, and attar was once carried and stored in small leather bottles called kuppi. Attar is pure oil, with no alcohol. It does not fly off the skin like a spray. It stays close, warms with your body, and opens slowly through the day.
 |
 |
| Kuppi perfume bottles from Kannauj. Photo: David Prasad, CC BY-SA 2.0 | An attar shop. Photo: Dev Jadiya, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
How to wear your attar
Each attar comes in a 12 ml glass roll-on. Roll it on your wrists, behind your ears and at the base of your throat, the places where your skin is warm. Do not rub your wrists together; let the oil settle on its own. A little goes a long way. Keep the bottle closed, away from sunlight, and it will stay with you for a long time.
Before you wear Kali, Bhairav or Pishach for the first time, take a moment. Hold the bottle, think of what you are asking for, and then wear it. That is how these fragrances were made, and that is how they are meant to be worn.
✦ ✦ ✦
More names are coming
Kali, Bhairav and Pishach are the first three. Gandhasāra, the essence of fragrance, and Bhakti, devotion, will join them soon, and we will tell their stories too.
Or write to us and we will tell you when they launch.
With love, from all of us at Daroonjinish, Kolkata.
Picture credits: story photographs are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under their Creative Commons licences, credited under each image. Product photographs: Daroonjinish.