Śasva Saaqi via the brand

The history of religions and mythology has always been one of my deepest interests, and within that vast field, India stands out as a place especially close to my heart. Growing up in Romania, I was profoundly influenced by the work of our greatest historian of religions, Mircea Eliade, whose vision of spirituality shaped my view of the world from a very early age. Eliade found in India both inspiration and initiation – studying under philosophers like Surendranath Dasgupta, he discovered how myth, ritual, and daily life weave together into one inseparable fabric, where the sacred exists not apart from existence, but interlaced with every gesture, embedded in even the most mundane details. This vision and hunger for a deeper, more sacred meaning of life has always fascinated me and remains one of the reasons why India sits high on my bucket list, not just as a destination for tourism, but as a place where I long to immerse myself deeply, knowing it to be a place of profound transformation. Perhaps this is why I felt such an immediate connection to the journey and depth of emotion that Sasva has painted in their story, recognizing in their narrative that same understanding of how scent, memory, and transcendence can converge into one, singular, perfect experience.

Sriman Subramanian Founder & Managing Director, Śasva – image via the brand

Śasva carries within its very name the Sanskrit root of excellence, the praiseworthy, the laudable. There is something deeply intentional and beautiful about this choice, as the founder, Sriman Subramanian, understood that a fragrance house exploring the depths of Indian spirituality must first honor the language that gave birth to some of humanity’s most profound philosophical insights. With his background in architecture, philosophy, and design, and a life lived between India and the great cultural capitals of Europe and the U.S., Sriman shaped Śasva as a meeting point of heritage and modernity. Their logo, a thousand-petal lotus, speaks to the same reverence for symbolic depth and in Indian spiritual tradition, the sahasrara, the crown chakra represented by the lotus, symbolizes supreme consciousness, the universal spirit that connects all beings, the mind that transcends individual experience.

Mood photo, perfume collection, image via the brand 

What captivated me about Śasva’s collection is the way each fragrance becomes a threshold into India’s vast emotional landscape – from the reverence of dawn prayers echoing through ancient temple corridors, to the restless, electric spirit of Bombay after dark, to the intoxicating aura of a moonlit night on a beach in Goa…These are perfumes that move through past and present, body and spirit, spirituality and carnality, and wearing them feels like inhabiting a scented world built on liminal states and bold contrasts, and the result is atmospheric, rich, and unapologetically opulent. The fragrance we will be focusing on is Śasva Saaqi – a coup de foudre from the very first sniff,  the one that takes us on a journey into a tavern along the Silk Road, where India meets Persia. Here, wine flows like poetry, love and divinity intertwine, and under lantern-lit arches, voices echo with the verses of Khayyam, Hafez, and Rumi*. Each sip becomes a taste of both desire and the divine – a tribute to the Sufi wine bearer who pours not just wine, but a passage to eternity, where yearning transforms into enlightenment.

Śasva Saaqi, image via the brand

“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring / The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:

The Bird of Time has but a little way / To fly – and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”  – Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Śasva Saaqi opens with a ruby splash of thick fruity wine, accompanied by the bitterness of almond and the sparkle of black pepper – a heady prelude that intoxicates the senses, just before it ignites them. Sweet, dark, scarlet red – it inebriates and seduces while ripe fruits swirl around the crimson lights of the tavern, as the first flickers begin to dance in the shadows. The first cup we are offered becomes a vessel of paradox: both fleeting pleasure and eternal truth and we have here exactly this liminal tension – the intoxication of the senses as an initiation into something deeper, where carnal desire and transcendence flow from the same chalice.

“O beautiful wine-bearer, bring forth the cup and put it to my lips (…)

In the house of my Beloved, how can I enjoy the feast / Since the church bells call the call that for pilgrimage equips.” – Ghazal 01 by Shams al-Din Hafiz

The heart beats in smoky rhythm, where honeyed tobacco curls like incense through the air, colliding with cedarwood pillars that hold up the vaulted tavern, a new gravity drawn between each breath. Embers of smoke blur the line between ritual and temptation until they dissolve.

Śasva Saaqi, image via the brand

“Through love all that is bitter will sweet / Through Love all that is copper will be gold.” – Rumi

And then comes the decadent gourmand embrace: a base where oud is tempered by vanilla’s sensual warmth, gilded with caramel and decadent sweetened dried fruits, all wrapped in the musk of bodies leaning too close, whispering too late into the night. It has Chris Maurice’s signature all over, as it’s elusive yet grounded, mystical yet deeply sensual, carrying its own gravity yet as remaining as comfortable as an embrace. It even stirred something deeply nostalgic in me – I felt like a child again, playing on my grandmother’s scarlet Persian rug, eating an almond halwa, while the grown-up guests around me drank red mulled wine, smoked, and laughed.

Screenshot from Game of Thrones HBO series- Cersei Lannister, fair use

PS: If you love sweet fruity wine, swoon at the thought of smoking a honeyed hookah, and can’t say no to a comforting ambery vanilla – I can’t think of a better fragrance to usher in the rusty embrace of October. And if you ever feel like role-playing Cersei Lannister, striding into a smoky medieval tavern (even if it’s only the office amidst the bloodshed dramas of Q3 reports), look no further!

*In a note by the brand

Top: Red Wine, Almond, Black Pepper; Heart: Tobacco, Smoky Notes, Cedarwood; Base: Oud, Vanilla, Caramel, Benzoin, Musk

Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor

Disclosure: A bottle of Sasva Saaqi was kindly offered by the brand; opinions are always my own.

Sasva Saaqi perfume & box  – photo by Nicoleta© 

Thanks to the generosity of Sasva, we have a bottle of Saaqi for one registered reader from  USA, EU & UK. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Nicoleta’s review and where you live. Draw closes 9/28/2025

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