Khaja is an Indian deep-fried pastry, commonly filled with fruit or soaked with sugar syrup.

History

Khajjaka, plain or sweet mentioned in

Manasollasa The ' also known as ''Abhilashitartha Chintamani'', is an early 12th-century Sanskrit text composed by the Kalyani Chalukya king Someshvara III, who ruled in present-day Karnataka . It is an encyclopedic work covering topics such as polity, gover ...

, was a wheat flour preparation fried in ghee. Khaja is believed to have originated from the eastern parts of the former state of

Oudh The Oudh State (, also Kingdom of Awadh, Kingdom of Oudh, or Awadh State) was a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of ...

and the former United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. This area presently corresponds to eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh and Western districts of Bihar. and is also native to state of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

as well as regions like Kutch and

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. Refined wheat flour with sugar is made into layered dough, with or without dry fruit or other stuffing, and lightly fried in oil to make khaja.Elizabeth Fernandez, Sugar and spice and all things nice, It is one of the famous sweets of Odisha and is related to emotions of all Odia people. It is also offered as an offering in the

Jagannath Temple, Puri The Jagannath Temple is an important Hindu temple dedicated to Jagannath, a form of Vishnu - one of the Trimurti, trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism. Puri is in the state of Odisha, on the eastern coast of India. The present temple was ...

. It is also said that Devotees who come to puri, surely take khaja (Pheni in Odia) while returning. Khajas from

Silao Silao (), officially Silao de la Victoria, is a city in the west-central part of the state of Guanajuato in Mexico. It is the seat of the municipality with the same name. As of the 2005 census, the city had a population of 147,123, making it the ...

and

Rajgir Rajgir, meaning "The City of Kings," is a historic town in the district of Nalanda in Bihar, India. As the ancient seat and capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty and the Mauryan Empire, as well as the d ...

in Bihar are almost entirely similar to

baklava Baklava (, or ; ota, باقلوا ) is a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey. It was one of the most popular sweet pastries of Ottoman cuisine. The pre- Ottoman origin of the ...

, whereas the ones from

and

are made with thicker pastry sheets, and are generally hard.Chitrita Banerji, Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices, The batter is prepared from wheat flour, mawa and oil. It is then deep fried until crisp, before being soaked in a sugar syrup known as ''Paga'', the pastry absorbing the syrup. Khaja served in of Kakinada, a coastal town of Andhra Pradesh, are served dry on the outside and soaked with sugar syrup on the inside. Khaja Mithai in Nepal are popular in the Maithali and Bhojpuri communities. This sweet is part of ''

chhat puja Chhath is an ancient Hindu festival historically native to the Indian subcontinent, more specifically, the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,West Bengal, Jharkhand, and the Nepalese provinces of Madhesh and Lumbini. Prayers during Chhat ...

'' celebrations in Nepal.

References

Bihari cuisine Odia cuisine Kutchi cuisine Indian pastries {{dessert-stub

History

See also

References