Incence Making

Incense, has its roots back in mankind's first
experiences with fire itself. It is unlikely primitive
man would have missed that certain woods had more
pleasing aromas and indeed varying emotional effects.
Incense artifacts, thousands of years old, have be found
in throughout the world, and appear to be a part of
virtually every culture. The connection between incense,
religions, medicine, and shaman practices is obvious, it
would be impossible to separate them, or say which
proceeded the other. Historically it is difficult to
trace because it has always been largely an esoteric and
oral tradition evolving in relation to both religion and
medicine

There are many myths regarding incense as well. Several
modern sources include the use of Salt Peter (Potassium
Nitrate) in making incense. This is undoubtedly a much
later addition that arose in the commercialization of
incense, primarily in the last 40 years.

Incense has appeared in many forms: raw woods, chopped
herbs, pastes, powders, and even liquids or oils. What
most of us think of as incense today is joss-sticks or
cones. Cones as we know them were an invention of the
Japanese and introduced at the World's Fair in Chicago
in the late 1800's. I cannot say, at this time, when the
Joss Stick or Masala incense first appeared. We do know
that it was brought to China by Buddhist monk's around
200 ce. as both incense materials and Buddhism travelled
the various routes of the Silk Road. The process of
extruding incense sticks and coils from finely ground
incense materials seems to have begun in China, as well
as the use of these types in time measurement.

Herbal Incense

Herbal incense is blended primarily for effect. Scent is
the secondary consideration in many cases, but in "all"
cases, the scent is designed for the burn. Many natural
incense ingredients have almost no aroma until they are
heated. Notably, Aloes wood as well as many other resins
have little or no aroma until they are smoldered over
the incense fire.

Incense and Herbalism go hand-in-hand, and the oldest
sources we have regarding herbalism and incense is the
Indian Vedas. The primary references are in the
Athar-vaveda and the Rigveda. This is commonly
considered first phase of Ayurveda and deals with the
subject in a more magical and religious approach to
healing. Examination of early Vedic texts indicates that
the herbalists, or healers were a second tier of Hindu
priest that emerged out of the agrarian areas. They
appear to assimilated their knowledge of herbalism with
the rituals and beliefs of the orthodox or "Sacrificial"
priests. However, they remained two distinct classes and
were scorned in the later days of this phase by the
sacrificial priests who considered them unclean because
of their association and medical treatment of all
classes of people. Around 200 bce. They were excluded by
law from participating in sacred rites. Even before
this, the medical priests had begun associating with
wandering mendicants and ascetics who were renouncing
sacrificial rites and orthodoxy, and among these were
the Buddhist or bhikkhus. Pali sources indicate that the
Buddhists were the principal means by which these
emerging physicians organized, developed and
disseminated their emerging art. This begins the
classical phase of Ayurveda and the great healer Atreya
emerges among others at the medical university at
Taxila. Among his students were Jivaku (Buddha's
Physician).

Later, Brahmanization of certain medical texts amends
the heterodox practices in light of a more orthodox
view, and Buddhist medicine appears to split with
Ayurveda. From this point, incense evolves in both
traditions in association with medicine and herbal
remedies, and becomes even more a closely guarded secret
passed down primarily in the oral tradition and
apprenticeship.