Did you know that a small town in Uttar Pradesh is called the perfume city of India. The town is none other than Kannauj. Kannauj is around 3 to 4 hours drive from Agra. Kannauj looks like any other dusty North Indian city. It has few archaelogical remains from the Mahabharata era. In ancient times, Kannauj was referred as Kusumpara and rose to its height during the reign of Harsha (590 to 647 CE). Kannauj finds its reference in Huan Tseng's literature where he mentioned about the use of the perfume across Northern parts of India. Plotemy specifically mentioned about the aroma of Kannauj , then referred as Kusumpua. Although nobody knows the exact date when this ancient method of preparing perfume commonly referred as ittar or attar was started, but it finds its first mention or reference in the works of Bana Bhatta in his book 'Harsh Charita'. It mentions the use of attar. Attar reached its peak of usage during the time of Mughals. The most interesting aspect is that the...