The Chronicles of Rasgulla!!!

Rasgulla is a syrupy sweet dish of the Indian subcontinent popular in places like Odisha, West Bengal & Mauritius. Though the dish originated in Odisha many centuries

ago, the present generation relate to Rasgulla to the spongy white variant of Bengal called Bengali Rasgulla or Sponge Rasgulla.

The Rasgulla of Bengal gained popularity in the 19th century. Its made from table tennis ball sized dumplings of Indian Cottage Cheese known popularly as Chhena &

Semolina Dough. Its cooked in light syrup made of Syrup. This is cooked until the dumplings completely soaks itself in the syrup.

When the Rasgulla originated in Odisha many centuries ago, it was known as Khir Mohana. It was used primarily as offerings to Hindu Goddess Laxmi as prasad after Rath yatra. This ritual started 600 years ago which makes rasgulla a centuries old dish.

Das invented the process of modifying the cottage cheese ( Chhena) in boiling sugar syrup in his sweet shop located in Sutanuti now know as Baghbazar. Das's recipe was

popularised by Bhagwandas Bagla, a Marwari businessman and his regular customer. He ordered huge amounts and popularised the rasgulla beyond the shop's locality.

Then in 1930, Das's son  Krishna Chandra Das introduced vaccum packing which led to the availability of canned Rasgullas and it made the dessert popular outside Kolkata and eventually outside India too.

Later Krishna Chandra's son Sarada Charan Das founded the K.C. Das Pvt Ltd company in 1946. After that Sarada Charan's younger, estranged son Debendra Nath established K.C. Das Grandsons in 1956.

Now a days, canned rasgullas are available throughout the length and breadth of India as well as in neighboring countries like Pakistan and bangladesh. In Nepal,

Rasgulla exists with the moniker Rasbari.

ISRO, the Indian space agency is developing dehydrated rasgullas among other dishes for Indian astronauts for its manned space missions.

100 gms of rasgulla contains 186 calories of which 153 calories is in the form of carbohydrates. It also has 1.85 grams of fat  and 4 gms of protein.

Even after so many centuries and countless civilisation and progression, a typical Bengali meal is incomplete without a Rasgulla.