Credible evidence has been found regarding the origin of Rasgolla in Odisha.
The technical committee, formed by the State Government to ascertain the origin of the famous sweet, on Friday visited Puri and interacted with senior servitors of the Shree Jagannath Temple, temple administration officials and knowledgeable persons of the town. Additional Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology Sudarshan Das heads the technical committee.
Temple Administrator PK Dash handed the committee a book Niladri Mahaotsav Kabya written by loknath Vidayadhar Mahapatra in 1699. The story describes about the concluding festival and rituals of the Rath Yatra of lord Jagannath and His siblings. In one of the episodes, it describes that before entering into the temple gate lord Jagannath offers Chhena ladu (the other name of Rasgolla) to His spouse Mahalakshmi.
The temple servitors deposed that since the inception of the Rath Yatra. Rasgolla is offered to the deities during the Niladri Mahotsav. This apart, they described the sweetmeat menu of the deities a majority of which are made from Chhena like Chhena Khai, Chhena Manda and Chhena Pua, etc.
The team was also presented the Madala Panji, an old chronicle which recorded all major events, rituals and religious history of the temple since rule of kings.