Rasgulla—the ethnic Indian sweetmeat delicacy and its evolutionary journey through contemporary research

West Bengal and Odisha, two distinguished provinces of India, are consecrated with prosperous animal resources. Both territories have substantially affluent traditional dairy-based products. Rasgulla is one of such kind of traditional Indian dessert made from milk casein with attractive white colour having a spongy, porous structure and spherical shape, popular all over the world for its taste, flavour and unique texture. It is mainly originated in the West Bengal and Odisha, through a cascade of ethnic gastronomic phenomena. Both the traditional and cutting-edge practice of rasgulla preparation has its own impact on the sensory attributes of the product. Researchers’ approach to improve textural, colour and sensory qualities of this astonishing dairy product has an appulse on overall acceptability of the product. Different types of milk and coagulant have a tremendous effect on the final quality of the product in terms of nutritional, textural and palatability characteristics of rasgulla. To make this traditional sweetmeat more nutritious, fortification and enrichment of functional features have been studied. Anti-diabetic rasgulla has been prepared to conquer the diabetes mellitus through re-modulation in the extent of sugar used to process this sweetmeat. Shelf-life of casein based products is one of the main concerns for researchers, due to abundance of ample amount of nutrients for optimum growth of microorganisms, along with the warm and humid condition of Indian subcontinent which accelerates the microbial propagation. Though the product has immense nutritional and sensory idiosyncrasy as well as folk medicinal importance, it is yet to be explored in coetaneous medical sciences.

Historical background behind the origin of rasgulla in Odisha

In Odisha, it is well known as rasagola. Since long before the Odisha Rasagola has a rich heritage as it is connected with world eminent Puri Jagannath (Hindu god) Temple. According to the temple’s rituals of Niladri Bije, on behalf of Shree Jagannath the Rasagolabhoga is traditionally offered to Devi Lakshmi (Hindu goddess) which is the duty of Bhitarachha sebaka . Jagamohana ramayana or Dandi Ramayana which has been sung and composed at Puri Jagamohana temple has the mention of rasgullas . Extensive representation of chhena, rasgulla, and other chhena-based sweetmeat products have been found in the ‘Ajodhya Kanda’ part of Jagamohana Ramayana . It is described that on the way to get back Lord Rama, his two brothers Bharata and Satrughna came in contact with sage Bharadwaj, and at that time sage Bharadwaj presented various types of food items to them including different chhena-based product namely chhenapuri, chhenaladu, rasagola and rasabali. In the book, Utkal Bhramanam has several utterances of rasgulla  Fakir Mohan Senapati acknowledged the use of rasagola in Odisha during those days. Poet Damodar Pattanayak described the acclaimed historic fair of Cuttack (Odisha) namely Bali Jaha (Journey to Bali island of Indonesia) and wrote about the glorious presence of rasgulla in the sweetmeat outlets