Eventful City: In Old Delhi, a 210-yr-old perfumery continues to make signature scents

Step into 320, Dariba Kalan Road in Chandni Chowk, and the first thing you notice is the mix of fragrances in the air — rose, sandalwood, jasmine and Oudh. Inside a shop, customers uncork bottles and test attars, before settling on one.

This is Gulab Singh Johri Mal, a shop in Old Delhi where the experience of finding a perfume has drawn customers since 1816.

Founded by Lala Gulab Singh and his son Lala Johri Mal towards the end of the Mughal era, the perfumery has remained at the same address for 210 years. Today, the seventh and eighth generations of the family — originally from Jhajjar — continue the tradition.

For 56-year-old Mukul Gundhi, who runs the shop with his brothers, the connection began in childhood. He and his brothers would visit the shop after school while their father, Lala Ram Singh, attended to customers.
After completing Class 12, Mukul joined the family business full-time. “This shop is my identity,” he says.
The family’s surname, Gundhi, is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘gundha’, meaning fragrant. Lala Ram Singh, the 6th generation perfumer, had named his first child Atul Gundhi.

Outside the store located in a narrow lane, Rajendar (38) holds four fragrance strips. “I haven’t landed on one yet. My friend and I usually come here every couple of months,” he says as he stands beside his scooter outside the shop.
Inside, rows of attar bottles sit behind the cash register, while wooden shelves display Belgian-cut glass bottles sourced by the family. The shop also sells incense sticks, dhoop, oils, mists, bakhoors and room fresheners.

The family makes attars using the traditional Deg-Bhapka method of hydro-distillation. Flowers and water are heated in a copper cauldron, or deg, over a wood fire. The fragrant steam travels through a bamboo pipe before condensing into sandalwood oil in a smaller vessel, the bhapka. The distiller judges by smell when the attar is ready.
The family maintains a factory and rose plantation in Siktara village in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district.

Atul, the eldest of the brothers, joined the business in 1979. A BPharm graduate from BITS Pilani, he develops fragrances by blending notes into compositions.

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“Developing a fragrance takes a lot of time,” he says. “The formulas come through trial and error, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of raw material.”

According to Atul, customer preferences have changed, too. “Earlier, you chose one perfume and wore that for your whole life, almost like a cigarette brand. Now, your morning, afternoon and evening perfumes are distinctly different. There is variety, and every customer wants a new perfume.”

Oudh is among the fragrances in demand this year, he says. “Oudh is a very abstract note, one I haven’t been able to explain, unlike Rose or Jasmine.” His brother Praful, who holds an MSc in Chemistry from IIT Powai, researches new perfume nuclei.

According to the family, their customers have been among the most important teachers. When customers began asking for lighter fragrances, the shop expanded beyond its traditional attars. When one requested a barbershop-style fragrance, the shop developed it within a week.

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The eighth generation is taking the business online through e-commerce and curated discovery sets, including ‘The Oudh Edit 2025’ and ‘The King’s Discovery Set’.

“Earlier, when people used to come here, it was difficult to show them all the 600-700 varieties we have. But now with the website, it has become easier for customers to choose what they like,” says 23-year-old Vibhu Gundhi, Atul’s son.

For Vibhu, the appeal remains deeply personal: “A perfume is an emotion, not just a perfume.”