The Mother's Fragrances Incense

The Mothers India Fragrances shanti nag champa ganesh NEW! sattva The Mothers Fragrances Incense  amber autumn leaves cinnamon and spice evening rose frankincense gardenia honeysuckle jasmine lavender lotus musk myrrh orange blossom opium patchouli passion flower rose roses and violets spicewood vanilla wild flower Incense Giftsets giftset 21 fragrances special selections Incense Holders Fragranced Sachets cinnamon and spice frankincense jasmine lavender lotus orange blossom patchouli rose vanilla

A Short History of our Products

Inspired to alleviate poverty
Our partner in India is called MCC. It is now a large company with nearly 400 employees, and had its humble beginnings in the early 1970's. India was at a crossroads at that time, the mechanisation of agriculture had been pretty successful and the productivity in that sector had gone up. However, the arrival of modern machinery had many people unemployed, as jobs that had been done by hand for centuries could all of a sudden be done much quicker by machine. It was the people who did not have any land of their own who now lost their jobs. The poor became poorer.

It was against this backdrop that a group of people came together, from many different countries and walks of life, but all inspired by the teachings of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. It was decided that the rural poverty was best alleviated by employment, and they started looking for ways to employ as many people as they could.

High quality handicrafts
Now all of us who have been to India will not have failed to be impressed by its magnificent handiworks and the high quality of its crafts. Yet at that time, it was deemed that only goods of low quality were suitable for exports: the foreign buyers were most interested in the low prices that India could offer. The above group decided to do away with this idea, and make products for the export market that are of extremely high quality. It was a revolutionary concept at the time.

They decided on setting up two workshops: one for a high quality, masala method, fully handmade incense, and another for handwoven woollen tapestries. You can read all about our incense here.

Tapestries
Weaving tapestries is an art, and a very labour intensive art for that. Originally the Gobelin-weaving that is done in the unit, was practised in Europe, mainly in France. It has as good as died out in the west, as very few people can afford the high prices of products handmade in Europe.

Although a completely different technique is used, the loom weaving suited the local women, and with a steady demand for the tapestries, a flourishing tapestries unit was set up.

To see a catalogue of our tapestries and to read more about them, visit our sister site www.just-tapestries.com