One day I went to buy a soap from a big retail store in Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, Delhi. That day I was too keen to buy Mysore Sandal soap. I remembered that when I was a little boy my father used to bring this soap home and there was a great aroma which could last for hours after the bath. But, even at that time this soap was considered to be a royalty. It wasn’t easy for the common man to buy this luxurious soap but my father had a deep love for it, as a result we also developed a connection with this soap.
So, that day when I went to buy Mysore Sandal soap from the Mall – I found out that the shelves ran out of it. Why so ? The sales girl said that a Japanese group came and bought each and every piece of Mysore Sandal soap. I asked her “, Is it still in demand? to which she said “,People who know about it, buy it no matter what… they even place an order if they we run out of stock?”. This is the kind of popularity this soap has and why not – it was started by the Royal Family of Mysuru, karnataka and people still love it.
Mysore Sandal soap is a great contribution by Mysuru Maharaja Krishanraja Wadiyar 4 and his Dewan Sir M Visvesvaraya. This soap is nothing less than a national treasure that came out of brilliant minds of the above two. The interesting story saga of this soap began with the first World War. Mysore kingdom was the largest exporter of Sandalwood to Europe. But due to war the entire export was stopped and a result huge piles of logs were lying useless in the godowns.
So, an idea came to M Visvesvaraya that Why not to use the sandalwood and it’s oil for common good. The genius thought of an idea – to create a soap for the masses but with the stamp of royalty on it. Listening to his noble idea the Maharaja immediately gave him a go ahead. Dewan Saheb was a man who believed in industrial development of Bangalore.
So, after getting the royal nod to start a soap factory Dewan Saheb chose a young and brilliant scientist S G Shastry who was later known as ‘SOAP SHASHTRY’. He was immediately sent to England to get proper knowledge of creating a soap and how to establish a modern factory. Though, due to war there were difficulties in getting proper informations but Soap Shastry got enough knowledge and returned home. He was eagerly awaited in India by the King and Dewan Saheb.
On his advise a soap production line was established near K R Circle, Bangalore in 1916. This soap was to be created using pure sandalwaood oil.
After kickstarting the project in 1916 – the next two years Soap Shastry was too busy in creating the right formula to create a proper Sandalwood soap. In 1918 – he was ready with the formula, the technique, marketting stratergies and sales charts. To procure the OIL from the logs a factory was established in Shimoga that used distillation process to collect pure sandalwood oil. The first soap was created in OVAL SHAPE and SHARABA a mythological character that had a body of a lion and head of an elephant was decided as a logo and was embossed upon the soap.
The tagline of the soap was created taking into consideration that the Mysuru Kingdom stands for wisdom, courage & strength. Dewan Saheb wanted to leave a big mark on the minds of the people through this soap. Therefore, the box was designed in such a manner that it looked like a jewellery box that contained a jewel inside giving people a feel of the royalty of the Mysuru Royal Family.
Soap Shastry – was so much in love with his creation that camels were hired in Rajasthan, Lahore, Karachi, Delhi and big advertisements were carried out. The soap was presented to different royal families across India – and it was taken as a mark of pride by the kings and queens. The demand increased in such a way that a bigger space at Rajaji Nagar Industrial suburd was given to the soap factory in 1957.
In 1980, the state government of Karnataka merged the oil Unit of Mysuru & Shimoga and incorporated them in karnataka Soaps and Detergents ltd. (KSDL). Today, when millions of soaps are produced internationally and people have a variety of options but Mysore Sandal Soap still stands apart.
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