TBI Food Secrets: The Fascinating History of Rasgulla and the ‘Sweet’ Battle Over its Origin

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In Kolkata, Dhiman Das, the great great-grandson of Nabin Chandra Das, often tells the story of how the legendary sweetmaker invented the rasgulla:

“Nabin Chandra Das first established a sweet shop in Jorashanko in 1864. But he went out of business soon and after two years, he opened another establishment in Bagbazar. Determined that he would not peddle run-of-the-mill sweets, he wanted to invent a sweet that would solely be his creation.

Das tried to boil chenna balls in sugar syrup, but they would just disintegrate. He finally resolved the problem by using reetha and creating bubbles that would lend a sponginess to the chenna balls. After sustained effort, he was able to master the art of holding the balls together, and thus was born rasgulla. His customers loved it.

In spite of well-wishers advising him to patent his creation, Das then taught the intricacies of the art to various sweetmeat makers because he believed that his creation would become famous only if it was available across the country.”

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Das’s invention became a huge success among Bengalis. Legend has it that Pashupati Bhattacharya, a famous medical practitioner of Bagbazar, used to carry Das’s rasgulla whenever he visited Rabindranath Tagore. Once, the shop had run out of stock when Bhattacharya arrived. As a result, he had to purchase the sweet from a nearby shop. Tagore felt the difference at once and asked the doctor to bring rasgulla from Das’s shop only.

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The other popular tale is that the famous Haradhan Moira, sweet-maker of the Pal Chowdhurys of Ranaghat, inventing the rasgulla by accidentally dropping some chenna balls into bubbling syrup. In the late 19th and early 20th century, two confectioneries -the Mullicks of Bhowanipore (this later became Balaram) and Chittaranjan Mistana Bhandar of Sobhabazar -further fine-tuned the delicious sweet.

The story goes that Bhagwandas Bagla, a wealthy non-Bengali merchant residing in Kolkata, travelled with sweet across India, resulting in new regional variations. It became rasbari in Rajasthan, rajbhog in UP, rasmalai in Benaras and even the official ‘cheese dumplings’ treat in the offices of the East India Company. In 1930, the rasgulla was canned and exported to different countries by KC Das and gained popularity across the globe.

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Here is an interesting anecdote about the deep fondness British colonial rulers in India harboured for the rasgulla.

William Harold was a famous British cook who was sent to India to help with the war efforts. His dishes were so delicious that a high ranking officer, who tried one of dishes, ultimately promoted him to be his personal cook. One day, the officer ordered William to fetch the recipe of the rasgulla, a local dish he ate and fell in love with.

Back then, written recipes were very few and very between, so William had to physically walk from home to home, knocking on every door, in order to get hold of that recipe. Howevre, in spite of his on-field research, he failed to acquire the recipe of the rasgulla.

Every home he visited gave him a different recipe and a different technique to work with. Unable to replicate the result, Harold left the country with 10 boxes of rasgulla and the hope that he would eventually be able to recreate the dish. Whether he ever succeeded in doing so remains a mystery.

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With so much tradition and history invested in it, Kolkata is unlikely to give up its claim as the iconic sweet’s birthplace. Ever since both the governments asking for a Geographical Indication in 2015, the sweet has found itself at the centre of an interesting tug of war. Odia litterateurs say the sweet is mentioned in many works that were written well before 1868. For instance, the ancient Odia dictionary ‘Purnachandra Bhasakosha‘ talks of a cheese sweet in jaggery syrup.

Odisha is also citing Pundit Suryanarayan Dash’s Sahitya Akademi award-winning ‘Odia Sahitya ra Itihasa‘, which mentions ‘Dandi Ramayan‘ and its pointers to Odia food including rasgulla. Some Odia enthusiasts have even called for observation of Rasgulla Diwas, coinciding with the Rath Yatra of the three revered deities of Puri’s Jagannath Temple.

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On the other, West Bengal is preparing a detailed dossier on historical evidence compiled in collaboration with K C Das, the sweet chain founded and run by Nabin Chandra Das’s descendants. Their key argument, also pointed out by food historian KT Achaya, is that Bengalis learnt how to make chenna from the Portuguese and were the first to experiment with it for their sweets. Elsewhere in India, the separation of the chenna from the milk was thought of as sacrilege since milk was offered to the gods.

In short, the jury is still out on who owns the sweet. Maybe it was invented in Bengal and taken to Odisha. Maybe the Odiya cooks of Bengali households bought it to Bengal. Given the lack of records, it is impossible to tell. However, one thing is more certain: given its history, and also the fact that it is now almost a pan-India food, any Geographical Indication claims that either Odisha or West Bengal might make on the rasgulla would be just a little unfair and unnecessary. After all, the best thing to do with a rasgulla is to eat it!

Update: The legal battle between Bengal and Odisha has finally come to an end, with the coveted Geographical Identification (GI) tag on rasgulla being awarded to West Bengal on November 14, 2017.

Also Read: Food Secrets: 20 Delectable Indian Sweets You Probably Haven’t Heard Of, But Must Try Right Away!

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