Khaja or Khajuri (

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

: 𑂎𑂔𑂳𑂩𑂲,

romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

: Khajurē) is an Indian

deep-fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow frying used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. N ...

pastry Pastry refers to a variety of Dough, doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking, baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often descr ...

, commonly filled with fruit or soaked with

sugar syrup Inverted sugar syrup is a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, made by splitting disaccharide sucrose. This mixture's optical rotation is opposite to that of the original sugar, which is why it is called an ''invert'' sug ...

History

Khaja, plain or sweet mentioned in

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 66,485, making it the s ...

, was a

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of common wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ...

preparation fried in

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from South Asia. It is commonly used for cooking, as a Traditional medicine of India, traditional medicine, and for Hinduism, Hindu religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by ...

similar to

Chandrakala Chandrakala was an Indian actress who appeared in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films. Film career She debuted in Kannada films in 1963 and went on to pair with Dr. Rajkumar, Kalyan Kumar, Uday Kumar and Rajesh. In 1971, she ...

, a flaky dessert from

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. Khaja is believed to have originated from the eastern parts of the former state of

Magadh Magadha was a region and kingdom in ancient India, based in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, eastern Ganges Plain. It was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the Second Urbanization period. The region was ruled by several dynasties, which overshado ...

and the former United Provinces and Magadh. Silao, Nalanda districts of Bihar, and is also native to state of

as well as regions like Kutch and

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. 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, In his 1872–1873 expedition to Silao, renowned British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Joseph David Beglar Joseph David Beglar, or Joseph David Freedone Melik Beglar (1845–1907), was an Armenian-Indian engineer, archaeologist and photographer working in British India and reporting to the Archaeological Survey of India, known for his images of temples ...

, talks about the sweet that dates back to King Vikramaditya and describes the sweetmeat. There is a famous folk tale that the

Lord Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

was offered Silao Khaja as he traveled through Silao on his way from

Rajgir Rajgir, old name Rajagriha, meaning "The City of Kings," is an ancient city and university town in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India. It was the capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty, the Maurya ...

to Nalanda. There are Buddhist sites nearby Silao.

Region

It is one of the famous sweets of Silao and is related to emotions of all Magadh people. It is also offered as an offering

. International sweets of Magadh. Khajas from

and

in Bihar are almost entirely similar to

baklava Baklava (, or ; ) 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. There are several theories for the origin of th ...

, whereas the ones from

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

and

are made with thicker pastry sheets, and are generally hard.

Preparation

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. Kaja served in of

Kakinada Kakinada (; formerly known as Cocanada) is a Port, port city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Situated along the Bay of Bengal, it serves as the headquarters of Kakinada district and is a prominent economic and c ...

, a coastal town of Andhra Pradesh, are served dry on the outside and soaked with sugar syrup on the inside. Khaja sweet is popular in Magahia and Bihari in Magadha. This sweet is a part of Chhath Puja, given as a gift at the daughter's wedding in Magadh Bihar.

Geographical indication (GI) tag

In December 2018, the popular delicacy from the Nalanda district of Bihar, known as Silao khaja, has been given a Geographic Indications Registry (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. Tourists who visit the Buddhist sites of Rajgir and Nalanda also enjoy silao khaja.

References

{{Pastries Bihari cuisine Doughs Kutchi cuisine Indian cuisine Indian desserts Indian pastries Maharashtrian cuisine Odia cuisine Pastries Puff pastry Uttar Pradeshi cuisine Vegetarian dishes of India

History

Region

Preparation

Geographical indication (GI) tag

See also

References