Bengal, Odisha in bitter battle over 'rosogolla’

Who invented India's beloved rosogolla? West Bengal has submitted an application for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the rosogolla, to stake its claim on the sugary delicacy and beat Odisha, a minister said.

"We have filed an application for GI on 18 September with full support from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," the state's science and technology minister Rabiranjan Chattopadhyay told IANS in Kolkata on Tuesday.

The syrupy, soft spongy balls of Indian cottage cheese have become the unexpectedly bitter casus belli between the two Indian states.

Both Odisha and West Bengal have entered the fray to stake their claim on the famed dessert.

The Odisha government recently decided to form three committees which will counter Bengal's claim as the birthplace of the rosogolla.

But Chattopadhyay said the state government is not considering forming any such committees at the moment to counter Odisha.

Bengal is claiming that Nabin Chandra Das had introduced the sweet in 1868, while the Odisha government says the tradition of offering rosogolla by Lord Jagannath to Goddess Laxmi on the day of Niladri Bije (the day when the deities return to their abode after the annual Rath Yatra) is at least 300 years old, much earlier than the 150-year history of Bengal's rosogolla.

"Bengal is the birth place of rosogolla and we prepared a detailed dossier on its origins based on evidence from Das family and historian Haripada Bhowmik. There is no question on the origins as far as Bengal is concerned," the minister said.