Mihidana

Mihidana (মিহিদানা) is a Bengali sweet made by frying a batter of rice flour and pulse flour into extremely fine grains and soaking them in sugar syrup. It is known as a specialty of Bardhaman, a town in West Bengal also called Burdwan in English. In the name, mihi means “fine” and dana means “grain.” Its distinctive feature is that the fine grains are not rolled into balls but are heaped up and eaten as they are.

Making grains through small holes

A batter of rice flour, chickpea flour known as besan, and water is dropped into hot fat from a utensil with small holes to form grains. Rice such as Gobindobhog and Kaminibhog, ghee, sugar and saffron are the ingredients cited in descriptions of Bardhaman’s mihidana. Its yellow appearance is also well known, but the rice variety, the coloring method and the proportion of pulse flour vary from maker to maker.

The related boondi is also made by dropping a batter soft enough to flow, made with pulse flour, through a perforated ladle and frying it. For mihidana, a brass utensil with especially fine holes is used. The batter is dropped into ghee and fried into grains, then lifted out and drained of excess fat; these are the steps before the grains are moved into the syrup.

Mihidana made up of fine grains. The gloss of the syrup-soaked grains is visible. Photo: Rajeeb Dutta, 2020-09-30, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; no further edits.

Frying, soaking and draining the syrup

The drained grains are transferred to the syrup and left to absorb sweetness and moisture until soft, and then the excess syrup is drained off. In the finished sweet, the shape of each individual grain can still be made out, yet the fine grains gather into a soft mass. It is a sweet that combines frying with soaking in syrup: the grains are first fried to give them their shape, then finished soft with syrup.

If the grains are pressed together further, they can also take a form close to the boondi or motichoor type of laddu. Whereas a laddu is a single piece made by rolling grains into a ball, mihidana can be eaten as fine grains heaped on a plate, and it is sometimes paired with sitabhog, another specialty of Bardhaman. White, rice-grain-like sitabhog and yellow mihidana can be told apart by appearance, but sitabhog also differs in using chhena, made by curdling milk, in its dough.

Mihidana photographed at a shop in Saktigarh, India. Small grains are piled up, with brown round sweets alongside. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, 2014-06-29, Saktigarh, West Bengal, India. Original image / CC BY 3.0. Downscaled version from the source; no further edits.

Two periods in the story of a royal sweet

Accounts of mihidana’s origin feature the royal family of Bardhaman and the Nag family of confectioners. The family’s own account links a story that Khetranath Nag made it in the time of Mahtab Chand with a story that Bhairab Chandra Nag served it when Curzon, the Viceroy of India, visited in 1904.

In the latter story, the king, Bijay Chand Mahtab, sought a special sweet to entertain the Viceroy, and the confectioner served mihidana and sitabhog, which were well received. The family tradition, including the former story, however, tells of production earlier than that. In the story that tells of production by an earlier generation of the family, the beginnings go back to the 19th century, and the 1904 offering is positioned as the occasion that made the sweet widely known.

Mihidana bearing the Bardhaman name was registered as a geographical indication in India in 2017. The protection covers the name of the place together with the skills and reputation of the region that produces the product. The process of grinding rice into flour, dropping the batter through small holes to fry it into grains and soaking them in syrup has been handed down as what gives this town’s sweet its character.

From festival sweet to shelves abroad

Mihidana is also offered on Dashami, which falls near the end of Durga Puja. It is a sweet used in household and community rituals, and also a gift carried from the town to other places. In August 2021 it was depicted together with sitabhog on a commemorative cover from India Post, and in October of the same year the first export consignment of mihidana registered under the name of its place of origin was sent to Bahrain. Tasting sales were also held in supermarkets there, introducing the local festive sweet to shelves abroad. The rice variety used for the flour and the substitution of fats also affect price, and producers have organized associations to protect local ingredients and skills.

Glossary