Rasagola and Odisha connection ; New lights and historical perspective

By Dr. Kailash Chandra Dash

At present there has been considerable debate on the origin of Rasagola-a famous sweetmeat in Eastern India particularly in Bengal and Odisha. Odias claim its  origin from Odisha and Bengalis claim its origin from Bengal. From the side of the Odias it is claimed on the basis of an extant tradition that Rasagola is offered by Lord Jagannatha to appease Lakshmi on his return from Chariot Journey festival from Gundichamandapa with his elder brother Balarama and younger sister Subhadra, as Lakshmi is not accompanied by him in this festive occasion. We do not know the exact date of the origin of this occasion, but it signifies two aspects which must be taken into account while deliberating on the origin of Rasagola. First of all it is presented by Jagannatha to Lakshmi to appease her because it seems to have been invented in Odisha as a special sweetmeat in some unknown phase of the past. A new sweet item like Rasagola was offered to Lakshmi(the goddess of wealth and prosperity) in some phase before the 1880s when this item was well known in Odisha as is shown later in this article in the context of Balijatra of Cuttack of 1893.Secondly why a Kolkata sweetmeat like Rasagolla(if Rasagolla was invented there) would be introduced in Puri temple in this specific occasion by the priests of Jagannatha without any opposition ?. On the other hand by this traditional account entitled Manabhanjan(the appeasement of Lakshmi by  the offering of Rasagolato her after the end of RathJatra) the Odia Rasagola as a new item was legitimized as an offering to the deity.

While deliberating on the origin and spread of this famous item from the side of Bengal several factors should be considered.

1. This term has not been widely stated in the Bengal dictionaries of the 19^th century where we find items like Gaja and Ladu and ever Jilipi. I found this term in Bengali dictionary of 1933-the famous BangiyaSabdakosh where the term is described in Bengali noun(Rasagolla).
2. Supposing Rasagolla was invented in Bengal as early as 1868 and thus as a new item it would have been popular atleast in Eastern India in the first two decades after 1868. But in 1884 there was a famous Fair in Calcutta and from the side of several regions of India new and special items and products were displayed on that spectacular occasion in Calcutta(present Kolkatta). This spectacular occasion was famous because it was visited by Lord Ripon, the Viceroy of India. According to UtkalDipika of 1884 this famous Mela was visited by the Odias who saw different well known products of India there starting from the sweets distributed in the famous Kalipuja of Calcutta. While presenting the sweets of Calcutta in the Kalipuja occasion there was only mention of MIthaai, Puri, Sandesh, Jilipi, Manda and Lalmohana. Why Rasagolla-a brilliant discovery from Calcutta Bengalis was absent in the description? If Rasagolla was invented in 1868 it must have been popular by 1884 in Odisha atleast because Odisha was a part of Bengal Presidency then. The non-mention of this item in the sweets of Kalipuja occasion in Meladarshan of 1884 indicates that it was not invented by the Bengalis in 1868.
3. Besides Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosh of 1933-37( which also consulted several Bengali works) and refers to the Odia term Rasagola there is a clear mention of the popularity of Rasagola in Odisha in the spectacular occasion of Bali Jatra of Cuttack in 1893 in the poem Balijatra of DamodarPattnaik of Dhenkanal.This is for the first time described in Indradhanu-an Odia weekly from Cuttack in its 1893 November issue. There in the Gudia shop of the Balijatra occasion in 1893 November Ladu, Rasagola, Baraphi, Jalapi, TejapatraPodaPistaka, Kanchagola, Sarapuli, Malapua, Mohanabhoga and Lalmohana were shown. This suggests that Rasagola was well known in Odisha in 19^th century A.D. I am yet to find this Rasagolla of Bengal in any significant Bengali document of the 19^th
4. Though the term Rasagola was not used in the traditional texts like Madalapanji and Deshkhanja in Odisha where we find the terms like Rasakora, Chhenaladu and Chhenamanda, and as Rasagola was well known as a sweet in Odisha in the 1890sthere is every likelihood that it was an invention of 19^th century from Chhenamanda as we find in the Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosh a referenence-Sankalpara Manda Hela Satya Rasagola. It suggests indirectly that Rasagola originated from Chhenamanda.
5. In Krushnasingh Mahabharata, Sabhaparva as directed in PurnachandraBhashakosh there is a term Rasakora. According to Krushnasingh, Raja of Dharakote of 18^th century, Rasakora as a sweetmeat ball was made by the scrappings of cocoanut kernel soaked in syrup. So why Rasagola would not have been invented in that manner from milk and sugar in Odisha?
6. From the popularity of Rasagola in KatakaBalijatra in 1893 and the non-mention of Rasagolla in KalikataMeladarshan in UtkalDipika of 1884 it seems to me asa student of history that the term was not really invented in colonial Calcutta.Atleast our extant information is not sufficient to justify its origin from colonial Calcutta.On the other hand it was well known in Odisha in the 19^th century and to add to our point Odisha was well known for several sweets which were even mentioned in literary texts.
7. Is there any reliable document of Bengal showing the use of Rasagulla in any texts of 1880-90 like the Odia Balijatra poem of 1893 in Indradhanu where the term was mentioned to have been popular  in Cuttack? Is the fact of the origin of Rasagulla in Bengal as early as 1868 is based on belief or authenticated by reliable texts of 1870s and 1880s in Bengal? This question is a valid point because even in the BangiyaBiswakosh of Nagendranath Vasu published in the last decade of 19^th century the term Rasagolla was described as simply Deshaja(there was no indication of its Bengal origin in it). Why in Bengali Biswakosh the term is not  stated as a Bengali noun because the reference Deshaja may also indicate both Odia and Bengali.The column on that term refers-Rasagolla-Mishtannabishesha; ChhenaraPindarasePakakorileyehikhadyaprostutahuye/Why N.N.Vasu was silent on the Bengali connection of Rasagolla if at all it was invented in colonial Kolkata ?

All these points make it clear that Rasagola was originated in Odisha and was offered to Lakshmi by Lord Jagannatha on the occasion of Manabhanjan(as stated in the undated traditional accounts of Odisha) as a process of its  legitimation. Probably it was circulated in colonial Kolkata by Odia Thakurs andthen  the Bengalis called it Rasagulla to show a difference between the two languages. On the discovery of the  date of the origin of Manbhanjan occasion in Puri temple rests the exact date of Rasagola formation in Odisha and Bengal.

We find the name Rasagola in the context of Bharata in BharadwajaAshram  inAyodhya Kanda in Jagamohan Ramayana of BalaramDas of 16^th century A.D. Although several revisions have been made in the text called Jagamohan Ramayana but with all revisions it must have appeared in the 19^th century. Hence the presence of this term in Jagamohana Ramayana is interesting because B.C. Majumdar in his Typical Selections of Oriya Literature(I) which was published by Calcutta University in 1921 has published a part of this Ramayana containing Rasagola in AyodhyaKanda. This is also an interesting evidence for finding out  the  origin of Rasagola which was popular in the early part of 19^th century before AD 1868. (For this see AsitMohanty`s editorial in Paurusha, June).