Mysore Sandal Soap

[1] The main motivation for setting up the factory was the excessive sandalwood reserves that the Mysore Kingdom had, which could not be exported to Europe because of the First World War.

[1] KSDL owns a proprietary geographical indication tag on the soap, which gives it intellectual property rights to use the brand name, to ensure quality, and to prevent piracy and unauthorised use by other manufacturers.

[3] In 2006, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian cricketer was selected as the first brand ambassador of the Mysore Sandal Soap.

To make good use of these reserves, Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the king of Mysore, established the Government Soap Factory in Bangalore.

In 1980, the Government decided to merge these factories and incorporate them under a company named Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited.

However, KSDL is facing issues such as shortage of sandalwood, which has resulted in the company using only 25% of the manufacturing capacity of its factory and leading to reduced production.

This is a great irony in a state that once set up factories to use up its excessive reserves and wears two geographical indication tags on its sleeve on account of its historic association with the precious wood.