Ledikeni () or Lady Kenny is a popular Bangladeshi and Indian sweet consumed in West Bengal, India and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

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

Chhena Chhena () or chhana () is a kind of acid-set cheese originating in the Indian subcontinent that is made from water buffaloDalby, A 2009, ''Cheese: A Global History'', Reaktion Books, p. 73, Kapoor, S & Kapoor, A 2006, ''Sanjeev Kapoor's No-oil V ...

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, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

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 (), also known as Baharampur (), is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. Berhampore is the administrative headquarters of the Murshidabad district. As of 2011 census, Berhampore is the seventh largest cit ...

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 without the sweetmeat being offered to the guests. 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 and ledikeni, but made of rice flour, is mentioned in the 12th century

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

-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, gove ...

''.

References

{{Reflist Indian desserts Sweets of West Bengal

History

See also

References