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7 min
27/01/2026
Is Rasgulla a Bengali dish or an Odia sweet? Culture is at the heart of the matter here; there are no clear winners, and both sides hold their bit close to their hearts. Odisha’s rasagola and Bengal’s rosogolla might mean the same thing and look quite similar, but in terms of taste and texture, they are quite different. Go down the rabbit hole of their respective stories, and you will know why and how the two differ.
Who does not know rasgulla, which is made out of chenna, shaped into balls that are super soft and spongy and soaked in sugar syrup. This lone sweet became the centre of a cultural tug-of-war between West Bengal and Odisha, not too recently. Given that both regions use a lot of milk-based products, the war was not exactly out of the blue. Two neighbouring states, one beloved sweet, and a legal battle that went all the way to the Geographical Indications (GI) Registry, ended with a clear result. Dive in to know more.
The rasgulla dispute officially erupted in 2015 when Odisha applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for 'Odisha rasagola'. This wasn't just about a sweet – it was about cultural identity, heritage, and stakes worth crores of rupees.
Odisha's claim goes back to the 12th-century Jagannath Temple in Puri. Here, rasagola has been part of the 'Niladri Bije' ritual (return of the three deities to the main temple) for centuries. According to Odia tradition, Lord Jagannath offers rasagola to appease Goddess Lakshmi after returning from the Rath Yatra.
West Bengal's counter-claim centres around Nobin Chandra Das, a confectioner from Kolkata's Bagbazar area, who is credited with creating the rasgulla in 1868. His shop, K.C. Das (named after his son Krishna Chandra Das), still stands in Kolkata and remains a pilgrimage site for rosogolla lovers.
Talk to any sweet shop owner in Kolkata, and they'll tell you with absolute certainty: rasgulla or rosogolla is a Bengali invention. The story goes that Nobin Chandra Das experimented with chhena (cottage cheese) and created this revolutionary sweet by boiling chhena balls in sugar syrup. Before this innovation, Bengali sweets were primarily made from khoya (condensed milk), and chhena-based sweets were relatively unknown.
K.C. Das, Nobin Chandra's son, was also known to patent a method to preserve rosogollas in cans (a milestone in the preservation of sweets). This allowed the sweets to travel beyond Bengal, be it within the country or outside of it. This made the brand synonymous with rosogolla, and Bengali confectioners, with their rosogolla-making expertise, started popping up across India.
Odisha has a tale rooted in its Pahala village in Khordha district. Locals will tell you that their rasagola has been around much before the Bengali version, for at least 600 years or more. The Odia rasagola, particularly the Pahala variety, has a reddish tinge (from caramelisation), is less spongy, and has a completely different texture.
It’s rooted in mythology and central to Odisha's Niladri Bije ritual, where Lord Jagannath offers rasagola to Goddess Lakshmi, which is documented in temple records and has been performed for centuries. For Odias, this religious significance makes rasagola an integral part of their cultural and spiritual heritage. Sudarsan Sahoo, a local confectioner from Pahala, maintains that rasagola has been made for generations in Odisha from the times of their ancestors.
The GI tag ties a product to a specific place of origin, giving it legal protection. Treat it like a birth certificate that gives the owners a massive commercial boost. Other Indian products with the GI tag are Darjeeling tea, Kanchipuram silk, and Alphonso mangoes. The protection implies that products made in that specific geographical area using a specific traditional method can only use that name. This makes the tag a matter of immense pride.
While the dispute was still heated, the conflict took a serious turn when one state sought a Geographical Indication (GI) tag. Within a few months, the other countered it with their own GI tag claim.
Odisha applied for a GI tag for 'Odisha Rasagola' in 2015, and to counter it, West Bengal applied for a GI tag for 'Banglar Rosogolla' in 2017. Both applications were filed with the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai. Bengal submitted evidence about Nobin Chandra Das, family records, photographs from the 19th century, and testimonials from historians. Odisha presented temple records, documents about the Niladri Bije ritual, and evidence of the Pahala rasagola tradition.
West Bengal won the GI tag for 'Banglar rosogolla' in November 2017, with Bengali rosogolla being recognised as a distinct product created in 1868. But here's where it gets interesting – during July 2019, Odisha was also granted a GI tag for 'Odisha rasagola'. It was recognised that both products, while similar, are distinct enough to deserve separate recognition.
As peace descends, what sweetmeat makers, who aren't as hot-blooded as the feisty ones, say – it's not about who invented what, it's about preserving our heritage (Odisha). The ones who literally have ragulla chashni running through their veins (Bengal) tend to take pride in taking ownership of the beloved syrup-soaked sweet. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation simply pops the spongy sweet into their mouths, enjoying the delightful creation!
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