: What Links Nalanda Jagannath Puri? A Mithai That Once Wowed Mauryan Emperors #IndiaNEWS #Food If theres something that gets a Bengali as excited as a bowl of mach bhat and mangsho (meaning, fish,

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What Links Nalanda Jagannath Puri? A Mithai That Once Wowed Mauryan Emperors #IndiaNEWS #Food
If theres something that gets a Bengali as excited as a bowl of mach bhat and mangsho (meaning, fish, rice and meat), it’s a prospect for a trip. A community obsession most Bengalis have is to eat and travel – not necessarily in the same order.
One of the places frequented by this community is Puri. A beach city in Odisha, almost every middle-class Bengali family has visited Puri at least once. From pilgrimages and weekend trips to even honeymoons, Puri for decades has seen scores of Bengali tourists.
Having visited Puri more than 10 times, it was always about the food for me. Be it biting on prawn chops (or pakora) sold at the beachside stalls while staring at the sea, or indulging in the flaky crackles of the local delicacy, khaja, a trip to Puri was a true gastronomic adventure.
The city’s true delight, khajas can be found almost everywhere in Puri – from Bada Danda or Grand Road to the entrance of the famous Lord Jagannath temple and is quintessential to the identity of the religious city.
It was quite a surprise then when an Odia friend pointed out that contrary to popular belief, khajas indeed are not indigenous to this state. A little dive into the gastronomic history of khaja reveals multiple origin stories dating back to 320 BCE.
Food for Power Sustenance
Made of wheat, sugar or jaggery, the golden crunchy dessert glistening with syrupy wonder looks a lot like filo pastry or baklava, sans the unique spiral shape. Refined flour is mixed with sugar and converted into a layered dough, which is then shaped into a shell-like pointed spiral, with or without a stuffing. These are then lightly fried in oil or ghee, to get the golden hue and crispy texture.
Before you call it a calorie-dense affair, let’s point out that khaja was termed to be the ‘food for power sustenance’ by none other than Chanakya in the Rigveda and Arthashashtra.
But beyond its physical form, it’s the stories behind it that make the khaja extremely intriguing. With complex textures and multiple origin stories, the seemingly simple dessert khaja is quite unique.
One such theory claims that khaja originated from the eastern parts of Oudh and Agra, making its way to parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Another emphasises that it originated during the Maurya dynasty in a small village called Silao that lies in between the ancient city Mithila and Nalanda of present-day Bihar.
According to this theory, wheat was one of the most important crops that found prominence in the regional palette during the Mauryan period. Made with wheat flour, this layered sweetmeat was both a symbol of health and sweet indulgence in this region.
Apparently, Chinese traveller, Hiuen Tsang during his explorations in the ancient city of Mithila had come to Silao and encountered khaja, comparing it to the middle-eastern delicacy baklava.

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