Sandalwood Agarbatti

Chandan is the smell most Indians would name if you asked them what a puja smells like. Not floral, not sweet — dry, woody and warm, the one that reads as devotion rather than air freshener.

These are slow-burning sandalwood sticks with a deep enough base that the room still holds it a couple of hours after the stick has gone out. That's the difference between good chandan and the cheap kind: what happens after it finishes burning.

Use it for

• Morning aarti — the default fragrance in most homes for a reason
• Meditation and japa, where sandalwood is traditional
• Thursdays and Saturdays, and any day the puja runs longer
• Guests and festivals, when the whole house should smell of it

Good to know

• 90g pack — roughly a month of daily use
• Long-burning with minimal smoke; the fragrance lingers after it's out
• Sturdy pack, so the sticks don't arrive snapped in half
• Use a stand with an ash catcher if your mandir shelf marks easily