 Pahala rasagolas from Odisha (left) and Bengali rasagollas from West Bengal (right) | |
| Alternative names | Rasagola, rosgola, roshogolla, rossogolla, rasbhari or rasbari (Nepali) |
|---|---|
| Type | Soft sweet soaked in syrup |
| Course | Dessert |
| Place of origin | India |
| Region or state | Odisha,West Bengal |
| Associatedcuisine | India,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Nepal |
| Serving temperature | Hot, cold, or room temperature |
| Main ingredients | Chhena,sugar |
| Variations | Bengali rosogolla, Odia rasagola |
| Similar dishes | Ras malai,khiramohana,Khondoler misti |
Rasgulla (literally "syrup filled ball")[a] is a syrupy dessert popular in theeastern part ofSouth Asia. It is made from ball-shaped dumplings ofchhena dough, cooked in lightsugar syrup. This is done until the syrup permeates the dumplings.
While it is near-universally agreed upon that the dessert originated in the eastern Indian subcontinent, the exact locus of origin is disputed between locations such asWest Bengal,[1][2] andOdisha,[3] where it is offered at thePuri Jagannath Temple.[4]
In 2017, when West Bengal got its rosogolla'sgeographical indication (GI) status, the Registry Office of India clarified that West Bengal was given GI status for Banglar rosogolla and Odisha can claim it too if they cite the place of origin of their variant along with colour, texture, taste, juice content and method of manufacturing.[5][6] In 2019, the government of Odisha was granted the GI status for "Odisha rasagola" (Odia rasagola).[7][8][9]
The dessert ispronounced[rɔʃoɡolːa] inBengali, andpronounced[ɾɔsɔɡola] inOdia andpronounced[rɐsɐɡoːlɐkɐm] inSanskrit.Rasgulla is derived from the wordsras ("juice") andgulla ("ball").[10] Other names for the dish includerasagulla,[11]rossogolla,[12]roshogolla,[13]rasagola,[14]rasagolla,[15] andrasbhari orrasbari (Nepali).[16]
According to historians of Odisha, the rasgulla originated inPuri, askhira mohana, which later evolved into the Pahala rasgulla.[17] It has been traditionally offered asbhog to goddessLakshmi atJagannath Temple, Puri.[18] According to the local legend, Lakshmi gets upset because her husbandLord Jagannath goes on a 9-day sojourn (theratha yatra) without her consent. So, she locksJai Vijay Dwar, one of the temple gates and prevents his convoy from re-entering theGarbhagṛha (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple. To appease her, Jagannath offers her rasgullas. This ritual, known asBachanika, is part of the "Niladri Bije" (or "Arrival of the God") observance, which marks the return of the deities to the temple after theRatha Yatra.[19][20]
The Jagannath Temple scholars such as Laxmidhar Pujapanda and researchers like Jagabandhu Padhi state that the tradition has existed since the 12th century, when the present-day temple structure was first built.[21][22] Pujapanda states that the Niladri Bije tradition is mentioned inNiladri Mahodaya, which is dated to the 18th century by Sarat Chandra Mahapatra.[21][23] According to Mahapatra, several temple scriptures, which are over 300 years old, provide the evidence of rasgulla offering ritual in Puri.[24]
According to folklore, Pahala (a village on the outskirts of Odisha's capitalBhubaneswar) had a large number of cows. The village would produce excess milk, and the villagers would throw it away when it became spoilt. When a priest from the Jagannath Temple saw this, he taught them the art ofcurdling, including the recipe for rasagulla. Pahala thus went on to become the biggest market for chhena-based sweets in the area.[25]
According to Asit Mohanty, an Odia research scholar on Jagannath cult and traditions, the sweet is mentioned as "Rasagola" in the 15th-century textJagamohana Ramayana of Balaram Das.[26][27][28][29][30]
The text mentions rasagola along with other sweets found in Odisha. There is also mention of many other cheese sweets likechhenapuri,chhenaladu andrasabali.[31][32] Another ancient textPremapanchamruta of Bhupati also mentions cheese (chhena).[33] It is being argued that cheese making process was well known before coming of Portuguese in Odisha.
According to the Bengali culinary historian Pritha Sen, in the mid-18th century, manyOdia cooks were employed in Bengali homes who arguably have introduced Rasgulla along with many other Odia dishes, but there is no substantial claim to prove that.[17] According to another theory, it is possible that the Bengali visitors to Puri might have carried the recipe for rasgulla back to Bengal in the nineteenth century. But no substantial claim regarding that was ever found by any historian or anyone else.[34]
This claim is contested by Bengali historians. According to food historiansK. T. Achaya and Chitra Banerji, there are no references to cheese (including chhena) in India before the 17th century. The milk-based sweets were mainly made up ofkhoa, before thePortuguese influence led to the introduction of cheese-based sweets. Therefore, the possibility of a cheese-based dish being offered at Jagannath Temple in the 12th century is highly unlikely.[35] According to Nobin Chandra Das' descendant Animikh Roy and historian Haripada Bhowmik, rasgulla is not even mentioned as one of thechhappan bhog ("56 offerings") in the early records of the Temple; the name of the sweet was coined in Bengal. They also state that it would have been a blasphemy to offer something made from spoiled milk (chhena) to a deity.[21][36] However, Michael Krondl argues that Hindu dietary rules vary from region to region, and it is possible that this restriction did not exist in present-day Odisha. But at the same time, he could not give any substantial information to uphold the claim that he was forwarding.[37]
According to sweetmeat researcher Haripada Bhowmick,dela rasagulla was popular inNabadwip andPhulia ofNadia.Sri Chaitanya loved this type of rasagulla a lot and the art of its making was spread to other regions during theBhakti movement.[38] The spongy, white rôśôgolla is believed to have been introduced in present-dayWest Bengal in 1868 by aKolkata-based confectioner namedNobin Chandra Das.[39][40] Das started making rôśôgolla by processing the mixture ofchhena andsemolina in boiling sugarsyrup in contrast to the mixture sans semolina in the original rôśôgolla in his sweet shop located atSutanuti (present-dayBagbazar).
Yet another theory is that rôśôgolla was first prepared by someone else in Bengal, and Das only popularised it. InBanglar Khabar (1987), food historian Pranab Ray states that a man named Braja Moira had introduced rôśôgolla in his shop nearCalcutta High Court in 1866, two years before Das started selling the dish.[41] In1906, Panchana Bandopadhyay wrote that rôśôgolla was invented in the 19th century by Haradhan Moira, aPhulia-based sweetmaker who worked for the Pal Chowdhurys ofRanaghat.[42] According toMistikatha, a newspaper published by West Bengal Sweetmeat Traders Association, many other people prepared similar sweets under different names such asgopalgolla (prepared by Gopal Moira of Burdwan district),jatingolla,bhabanigolla andrasugolla.[41] Food historian Michael Krondl states that irrespective of its origin, the rôśôgolla likely predates Nobin Chandra Das. A sales brochure of the company run by Das' descendants also hints at this: "it is hard to tell whether or not cruder versions of similar sweets existed anywhere at that time. Even if they did, they did not match the quality of Nobin Chandra, and having failed to excite the Bengali palate, they slipped into oblivion."[37]
Bhagwandas Bagla, aMarwari businessman and a customer of Nobin Chandra Das, popularised the Bengali rôśôgolla beyond the shop's locality by ordering huge amounts.[43]
In 1930, the introduction ofvacuum packing by Nobin Chandra's sonKrishna Chandra Das led to the availability of canned Rasgullas, which made the dessert popular outside Kolkata, and subsequently, outside India.[44] Krishna Chandra's sonSarada Charan Das established the K.C. Das Pvt Ltd company in 1946.[45] Sarada Charan's younger, estranged son Debendra Nath establishedK.C. Das Grandsons in 1956.
Today, canned rasgullas are available throughout India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as in South Asian grocery stores outside the Indian subcontinent. InNepal, Rasgulla became popular under the nameRasbari.[16]
The Indian space agency,ISRO, is developing dehydrated rasgullas and other dishes for Indian astronauts in its planned crewed missions.[46]
In 2015, the Odisha government initiated a move to getGeographical indication (GI) status for the rasagulla made in Pahala.[21] On 30 July, the people of Odisha celebrated "Rasagola Dibasa" ("Rasgulla Day") to reaffirm Odisha as the place of the dish's origin.[47] In August,West Bengal decided to legally contest Odisha's move to obtain GI Status.[36] In 2015 The Odisha state government constituted three committees to claim over the rasgulla. The committees submitted their interim report to the government. Noted journalist and food researcherBhakta Tripathy and a member of the committee had submitted dossier containing historical evidence of rasgulla origin inOdisha.[48] The Science and Technology department of the West Bengal government also started the process to get its own GI status for the dessert.[49]
On 30 July 2015, on the day of "Niladri Bije", a social media campaign was started by using the hashtag #RasagolaDibasa and it later became a mainstream celebration as the first day to celebrate Rasgulla's origin to be Odisha.[14][47][50] Odia newspaperSambad andFM radioRadio Choklate in collaboration with the confectioners of Pahala celebrated a rasgulla exhibition-cum-awareness event in Bhubaneswar. Sand artistSudarshan Patnaik made a sand sculpture inPuri Beach depicting "Niladri Bije" and Jagannath offering rasgulla to Lakshmi.[51]
It has been agreed upon to celebrate the Rasagola Dibasa every year on the tithi of Niladri Bije in the lunar calendar. In the year 2016, the Rasagola Dibasa has been celebrated on 17 July.[52]
To pay tribute to the inventor of rosogolla, ‘Nobin Chandra Das’, and to promoteBengali claim of authenticity over rosogolla, from 2017 the government ofWest Bengal has decided to celebrate "Rosogolla Utsob" every year on 28 December.[53] And in the 2017 rosogolla festival, Bengali confectioners prepared the world's largest rasgulla, which weighed nine kilograms.[54][55] To celebrate the 150th anniversary of rosogolla's invention, the government of West Bengal had also organised a three-day grand ‘Rosogolla festival’ from 28 December 2018 to 30 December 2018.
To prepare rasgulla, the cheese (chhena) mixture is formed into small balls. These balls are then simmered in a sugar syrup.[56] It can also be prepared using apressure cooker[57] or anoven.[58] While serving, a drop of rose water (only organic and edible type of rose water, not rose perfume or synthetic flavours) can be added.
![Reddish rasgullas from Pahala (located between the cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack), Odisha[59]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRed_color_rasagola_from_Pahala%2c_Khurda_district%2c_Odisha%2c_India.jpg)
Along withchhena gaja andchhena poda, rasgulla is one of three traditionalOdia chhena desserts. Due to rasgulla becoming associated withBengali cuisine, the Odisha Milk Federation has tried to popularise chhena poda as the signature Odia dessert.[60][61]
Typically, a 100-gram serving of rasgulla contains 186 calories, out of which about 153 calories come from carbohydrates. It also contains about 1.85 grams of fat and 4 grams of protein.[62]
In 2015, West Bengal applied for aGeographical Indication (GI) status for "Banglar Rasogolla" (Bengali Rasgulla). The Government clarified that there was no conflict with Odisha, and its application was only for a specific variant which was different in "both in colour, texture, taste, juice content and method of manufacturing" from the variant produced in Odisha.[63] On 14 November 2017, theGI Registry of India granted West Bengal the GI status for Banglar Rasogolla.[5][64][65]
The GI Registrar office atChennai later specifically clarified that West Bengal was given GI status only for the Bengali version of Rasgulla ("Banglar Rasogolla"), not for the sweet's origin. The office also stated that Odisha had not by then applied for any GI tag, but it could also get Odisha Rasgulla's GI tag by presenting the necessary evidence.[5]
In 2018 Odisha applied for GI status in Chennai GI Registry.[66] On 29 July 2019, the GI Registry of India granted Odisha the GI status for "Odisha Rasagola", which is the Odia version of Rasgulla.[7][8]
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