Character
The Story of Indian sandalwood
Indian sandalwood commands reverence across millennia—a parasitic tree whose heartwood yields one of perfumery's most coveted notes: creamy, warm, and quietly sacred. Mysore sandalwood from Karnataka sets the global standard for excellence.
Heritage
Indian poetry spoke of sandalwood coming from the south, where mountains held trees filled with venomous snakes. The image served as a metaphor for a tantalizing mix of good and evil, so a king might be compared to a sandalwood tree, admired yet surrounded by danger. Sandalwood appeared in the classic list of precious aromatics alongside agarwood, camphor, musk, and saffron by the early centuries AD. Arab perfumers pulverized it into sawdust or powder, using it as the base for solid perfumes and incense. In Indian spiritual life, the wood held deeper meaning still. Its soothing quality made it an aid to meditation, believed to quiet a whirring mind. Practitioners applied sandalwood oil to the forehead, temples, or between the eyebrows. Priests burned it on altars as a way of speaking to the heavens. By the 19th century, modern perfumery adopted sandalwood as a cornerstone fixative.
At a Glance
2
Feature this note
India
Primary source region
Ingredient Details
Steam distillation
Dried heartwood
Did You Know
"Santalum album is a parasitic plant. It suckers itself to the roots of neighboring trees and slowly grows, sometimes reaching only 10 metres in height."