Dharwad Pedha

Dharwad pedha (ಧಾರವಾಡ ಪೇಡ) is a milk sweet named after Dharwad in northern Karnataka, South India. It takes the form of small brown pieces coated in white sugar, with the flavor of milk cooked for a long time and a finely grainy texture. Although it is made from white milk, it is brown all the way through, and this is the clue for recognizing the pedha of this place.

Removing the water and keeping the milk solids

Pedha is a sweet made throughout India, based on sugar and khoa (khoya), which is milk that has been boiled down. When milk is heated in a wide, shallow pan and its water evaporates, the milk solids that collect become khoa. The more the milk reduces, the more readily it sticks to the bottom and sides of the pan, so it is cooked not only by stirring but also by scraping the stuck portions back into the mixture.

There are also different kinds of khoa: pindi, which has fine, uniform grains and holds together well; a kind that is moist and soft; and a kind with noticeable grains. Pindi is suited to ordinary pedha; it is combined with sugar, kneaded while being heated further, and shaped. The starting point differs from that of chhena, which is made by curdling milk with acid and draining off the whey. The rich milk flavor of pedha comes from the process of concentrating milk in the pan.

In Dharwad, milk and sugar are cooked until brown, cooled, and then shaped into rounds by hand. The finished pedha is coated with white powdered sugar and left to dry for a while to complete it. After the inside has been cooked with sugar, still more sugar is applied to the outside. The sugar that first touches the mouth and the reduced milk inside differ in their graininess, and that contrast is contained within a single small piece.

Indian educational materials on food processing describe ordinary pedha as a pale yellowish-white sweet with coarse grains, whereas the Dharwad product is known as a brown sweet. Both are sweets made of milk and sugar, but regional differences appear in how the cooking proceeds and how they are finished. Dharwad’s deep color and sugar coating reflect the way the sweet is finished in that place.

Dharwad pedha coated in sugar. The brown milk sweets are lined up in a box. Photo: Maharana7573, 2019-09-27, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-size version from the source, no additional processing.

A craftsman from the north, and Dharwad’s milk

The history of Dharwad pedha is told through the migration of the Thakur family. The family’s ancestor, Ram Ratan Singh Thakur, is said to have moved from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, North India, to Dharwad, where he began making and selling pedha. The move is said to have been prompted by an epidemic in his hometown.

Later, his grandson Babu Singh Thakur built up the business, and the pedha also came to be known by the name of Line Bazaar, where the shop is located. It is a lineage in which a milk sweet found widely in North India grew into the specialty of a southern town. The dates in the family history vary, and it is handed down as a history linking generations of production with the family’s trade in the town. In the geographical indication application documents, a certificate of merit awarded to Babu Singh for exhibiting pedha at the 1913 Dharwad industrial exhibition is listed as one of the submitted materials.

The sourcing of milk is also tied to this place. Teaching materials in the field of food processing cite, as background to this sweet, the milk of buffalo raised by a pastoral community called the Gavali around Dharwad. The community that supplies the milk and the work of the craftsmen who concentrate it have together sustained this regional sweet.

At the Thakur family’s workshop, milk was still being boiled down over a wood fire at the time of a 2015 visit and interview. The family itself handled the blending of the ingredients, and the finished products were packed into small boxes, placed in large steel boxes, and transported to shops in the city. Even after the business expanded from selling only what was made at home at its own shopfront to multiple production sites and sales outlets, the system of the family managing the formula had continued.

Dharwad pedha received a geographical indication (GI) registration certificate dated September 9, 2008. The applicant was the Thakur family’s manufacturers’ welfare trust, and the sweet’s link to the place whose name it bears has been registered. This is an official date for protecting the product’s name and region, separate from the year its beginnings are traditionally dated to.

Glossary