This year the sales are much less than that of the previous year, claimed sellers of attar (fragrance), surma (kohl), caps and rosaries at the Baitul Mukarram Mosque Market and on the surrounding footpath on Friday.
Although it seemed a busy day at the market with a good number of customers bargaining and buying with great pleasure as it is about a week for Eid, the sellers seemed quite downbeat.
Quazi Kawsar Ahmed, a banker, who bought a panchkali cap and a qoumia cap from Mujibur Rahman’s foothpath shop at the northern corner of the mosque, said the price was not as high as it was expected before Eid.
Mujibur Rahman said he had been selling about Tk 3,000 each day during the first twenty-three days of Ramadan, noting that the sales usually increase during the last week of the fasting month.
While asked about the varieties of caps in his shop, Mujibur said, ‘I myself cannot tell about the number of varieties, there are so many.’
‘This one is called Brunei Sultani cap, named after Brunei’s king who used to wear such caps’, he began to demonstrate his caps and his wisdom.
‘You can buy Omani caps, Chinese caps, Haji caps, Turkish caps at Tk 100-200 each, whereas Bangladeshi qoumia caps, embroidered caps, Bhashani caps, plastic caps will cost Tk 10-60 a piece,’ said Mujibur.
‘Omani, Chinese and Turkish – these are just names of designs. In reality most of the caps are made in Bangladesh and are supplied by wholesalers from Chaukbazar,’ added Mujibur.
Md Sultan Ahmed, an attar, cap and rosary shop owner at the market, said he did not observe any difference between the sales of the previous years and that of this year.
Sultan said he had almost all kinds of caps and attars in the shop, adding that the most costly caps in his shop are Jinnah caps and Shindhi caps that cost between Tk 500-3000.
Most costly attar varieties include agar, ud and kostury, pricing between Tk 2,000 and Tk 4,000 per tola, whereas varieties such as meshq ambar, meshq hena and darbar gul-e-lal cost between Tk 200 and Tk 400 per tola, said Sultan.
Attar sellers in the market have been selling about Tk 10,000 a day during the last twenty days, he added, while selling to Robbul Islam Khan, one of his regular customers, one tola beli attar and one tola surma.
Robbul said he preferred attars and surma than modern scents and body sprays as the traditional attar smelt solemn to him.
Sultan said he only sold Egyptian surma (kohl) that cost Tk 50 per tola.
Ripan Hossain and Md Sohel Rana are two attar and rosary sellers on the footpath.
Ripan said he had jannat-ul-ferdous, Irani golap and paka golap attars at the price between Tk 100 and Tk 200 per tola and added that hasna hena, beli, kancha golap, gul-e-lal would cost below Tk 100.
Both Ripan and Sohel said the sales of surma had fallen over the years.
They said they sold Saudi Solaimani surma at Tk 50 per tola and the cheapest surma caskets cost Tk 30 a piece.
Ripan also sells rosary in his shop. ‘The price of a rosary falls between Tk 10 and Tk 100 depending on the kinds of beads you prefer for your rosary,’ said Ripan.
Rosaries of wooden beads are the least costly and the rosaries of stone beads, rosaries with Allahu or Mohammad inscribed in Arabic on the beads, radiant beads are pricier, he added.
Abu Bakkar, a leader of the sellers association at the market, told New Age that there were 98 attar, cap and rosary shops at the market and more than 150 shops on the footpath surrounding the mosque.
