Ledikeni ( bn, লেডিকেনি) or Lady Kenny is a popular

Indian sweet This is a list of Indian sweets and desserts, also called ''mithai'', a significant element in Indian cuisine. Indians are known for their unique taste and experimental behavior when it comes to food. Many Indian desserts are fried foods made wi ...

consumed in

West Bengal, India West Bengal (, Bengali language, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is a light fried reddish-brown sweet ball made of

Chhena Chhena () or chhana () are a style of cheese, originating from the Indian subcontinent, made from water buffaloDalby, A 2009, ''Cheese: A Global History'', Reaktion Books, p. 73, Kapoor, S & Kapoor, A 2006, ''Sanjeev Kapoor's No-oil Vegetarian C ...

and flour, soaked in sugar syrup. Ledikeni is named after Lady Canning, the wife of Charles Canning, the Governor General of India during 1856–62.

History

The sweet originated in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

in the middle of the 19th century. There are various legends regarding the origin of the sweet. According to the most popular legend, a special sweetmeat was prepared by Bhim Chandra Nag in the honour of Lady Canning at some point during her stay in India from 1856 till her death in 1861. In some versions of the tale, the sweetmeat was prepared to commemorate her visit to India in 1856, while in other versions, it was prepared on the occasion of her birthday. Some variations of the tale state that it became her favourite dessert, which she would demand on every occasion. According to yet another legend, the sweet was prepared by the confectioners of

Baharampur Berhampore (, ) is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. As of 2011 census, Berhampore urban agglomeration had a population of 305,609 and is the seventh largest city in West Bengal (after Kolkata, Asansol, Siliguri, D ...

in 1857, after the mutiny, to commemorate the visit by Canning and his wife. Lady Canning died in 1861. Since then the sweetmeat has gained popularity in Bengal. No grand feast was considered complete if the sweetmeat was not offered to the guest. The manufacturer was said to have made a lot of money by selling the sweetmeat although some have claimed that its popularity is due to the name rather than the taste. As it gained popularity, the sweetmeat came to be known as "Lady Canning" which gradually got corrupted to "ledikeni". A sweet very similar to the modern

pantua Pantua ( bn, পান্তুয়া) is a local confection from the Indian subcontinent, notable in West Bengal, Eastern India and Bangladesh. It is a traditional Bengali sweet made of deep-fried balls of semolina, chhena, milk, ghee and ...

and ledikeni, but made of rice flour, is mentioned in the 12th century

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

-language text ''

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 ...

''.

References

{{Reflist Indian desserts Sweets of West Bengal

History

See also

References