**Bhubaneswar**: At a time when Odisha and West Bengal are fighting each other over the ownership of rasgulla, an Odia researcher on Wednesday said the sweet had its roots in Odisha.
Kedarnath Gabeshana Pratisthan in the city has an edition of Dandi Ramayan that mentions rasgulla originated in Odisha.
Even the ‘Madala Panji’, a chronicle of the Puri Jagannath Temple, also mentions it.
Rasgulla has been mentioned in Odia literature before 1893 while there is no mention of such sweet in any Bengali literature before 1896.
There are several evidences that evince the sweet originated in Odisha and not in West Bengal, said researcher on Jagannath Cult Asit Mohanty, who submitted the report.
“I am very happy today that after a long wait, Asit Mohanty has submitted a 150-page report with documentary evidence that rasgulla had originated in Odisha. The State government will take appropriate action after examining the report and we are hopeful that Odisha will get the GI tag for the age-old sweet, which we had demanded before India government,” said science and technology minister Pradeep Panigrahy.
Notably, the state government had formed a technical committee in September last year to collect evidences on the origin of rasgulla in Odisha after both Odisha and West Bengal fought for acquiring Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the sweetmeat.
GI tag is like a brand name granted to a product because of its geographical uniqueness.
