![\"Pleated](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/2d38798afc803314f4b5c17f391530948781e34e4d2f3258dc8a226c7767fb12.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
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Steamed Skins and Fried Skins<\/h2>\n
Some modaka are fried. For the Ganesha festival in Goa, fried modaka made with coconut, jaggery and cardamom are mentioned. The softness of a steamed rice-flour skin differs from the crunch of a skin fried in oil, so even sweets with the same name make a different impression in the mouth.<\/p>\n
There are also modern products in which a dough made from reduced milk, chocolate or other ingredients is pressed into molds to give it a pointed top. These shape the milk or chocolate dough itself and have no rice-flour skin. The form of the traditional filled sweet carries over even into products made of different ingredients.<\/p>\n Modaka is offered as a sweet that Ganesha loves. Ganesha is worshiped as a deity who removes obstacles and brings success and prosperity, and offerings are also made to him when beginning something new. His fondness for sweets connects the god\u2019s approachable character with prayers for blessings. During Ganesha Chaturthi, offerings are prepared at household and community altars and shared among people. In Maharashtra, steamed modaka is the representative offering, but the kinds of offerings vary according to local food cultures.<\/p>\n The link between this sweet and the god can also be seen in old statues. A Ganesha statue from the Chola dynasty of South India, from around 1070, depicts him holding modaka in his hand. From the way he turns the tip of his trunk toward a small round sweet, one can see the long-standing relationship between the god and sweets. The statue shows a round sweet, which also differs in appearance from today\u2019s form, with fine pleats gathered in a rice-flour skin.<\/p>\n Ganesha, c. 1070, South India, Chola dynasty, bronze. The tip of the trunk reaches toward the hand holding the sweet. Artist unknown, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1970.62, Gift of Katharine Holden Thayer. The image is a public domain work made available through the museum\u2019s Open Access program. Unaltered. Artwork information<\/a> \u00b7 Terms of use<\/a>.<\/p>\n Classical modaka is not limited to today\u2019s steamed sweet. The rituals in the ancient treatise on drama, the Natyashastra, include provisions for offering modaka to Shiva, Vishnu and other deities. There, the name refers to round sweets and does not mean only a specific pleated filled sweet. Sweet balls were also placed as food for the gods in the rites for preparing the stage.<\/p>\n The Manasollasa, a 12th-century work that includes encyclopedic descriptions of cooking, also mentions the name varshopalagolaka, meaning something round like hailstones. A literature survey of food culture lists it as a sweet close to modaka. As for today\u2019s steamed modaka of Maharashtra, it is reported to have been made in households in Mumbai and Pune in the 19th century. The classical name for round sweets and today\u2019s modaka, which combines a rice-flour skin, coconut filling and steaming, have overlapped over the course of history while differing in scope.<\/p>\n Kozhukattai of Tamil Nadu, a close relative, also includes versions in which a sweet filling is wrapped in a rice-flour skin and steamed. In the sweet pooranam kozhukattai documented by India\u2019s Central Rice Research Institute, roasted pulses, coconut, jaggery and cardamom are ground without adding water to make a somewhat dry filling. For the skin, boiling water is added to rice flour and the dough is kneaded, spread into a small cup and filled. It may be closed not only into a pointed shape but also into a half-moon shape. Even when the structure of wrapping, closing and steaming is shared, neither the pulses in the filling nor the outer shape is fixed to a single form.<\/p>\n Kozhukatta of Kerala is also a similar sweet that combines rice flour, coconut and sugar. In this region it is also known as a food that Christians make around Palm Sunday. Here, a sweet with a sweet filling wrapped in a rice-flour skin graces the table before Easter.<\/p>\n The name of the sweet modaka also survives in Buddhist literature. In a tale in the Fo benxing ji jing, Yashodhara makes kangigan (joy balls) and has her son Rahula deliver them to his father, Shakyamuni. In this tale, the sweet appears as an offering passed from mother to child and from child to father.<\/p>\n In Japanese esoteric Buddhism, there is a custom of offering kangidan to Kangiten, a deity connected to Ganesha. According to S\u014drin-ji temple in Kyoto, kangidan is a sweet made by wrapping a filling, to which aromatics and fruit are added, in rice flour and frying it in sesame oil. Although it shares the structure of a rice-flour skin with a sweet inside, it differs in ingredients and aroma from the steamed sweet with coconut filling. Sweets whose names express joy are made in different lands, keeping two aspects: the pleasure of eating them and their role as offerings to deities and buddhas.<\/p>\n Ukadiche modak<\/strong>: The steamed modaka of Maharashtra, with a sweet filling wrapped in a rice-flour skin.<\/p> Jaggery<\/strong>: A less refined sugar made from sugarcane, palm or other sources.<\/p> Ganesha<\/strong>: An elephant-headed Hindu deity, depicted as fond of modaka.<\/p> Ganesha Chaturthi<\/strong>: An annual festival honoring Ganesha.<\/p> Chola dynasty<\/strong>: A dynasty that ruled South India. The bronze statue in this article is a work from that period.<\/p> Recipe<\/strong>: The complete set of ingredient proportions and method.<\/p> Kozhukattai<\/strong>: A filled rice-flour sweet of South India, compared to modaka as a close relative.<\/p> Natyashastra<\/strong>: An ancient Indian treatise on drama. It also records the rites and offerings that accompany theatrical performances.<\/p> Shiva \/ Vishnu<\/strong>: Hindu deities. In the classical text cited in this article, they are named among those to whom modaka is offered.<\/p> Manasollasa<\/strong>: An encyclopedic work compiled at a 12th-century South Indian court. It also covers the preparation of food.<\/p> Varshopalagolaka<\/strong>: The name of a sweet found in the Manasollasa, meaning something round like hailstones.<\/p> Pooranam<\/strong>: A filling used in kozhukattai and similar sweets.<\/p> Kozhukatta<\/strong>: A rice-flour sweet made in Kerala. Some versions are filled with a sweet coconut filling.<\/p> Palm Sunday<\/strong>: A Christian day, preceding Easter, that commemorates Jesus\u2019s entry into Jerusalem.<\/p> Fo benxing ji jing<\/strong>: A Buddhist text containing tales about the life and previous lives of Shakyamuni.<\/p> Yashodhara \/ Rahula<\/strong>: Figures who appear in Buddhist tales as Shakyamuni\u2019s wife and son.<\/p> Shakyamuni<\/strong>: The founder of Buddhism.<\/p> Kangiten<\/strong>: A deity worshiped in Japanese esoteric Buddhism, derived from Ganesha. Also called Shoten.<\/p> Kangigan \/ kangidan<\/strong>: Sino-Japanese names connected with sweet confections. This article distinguishes the kangigan in the old tale from kangidan, the fried sweet offered at Japanese temples.<\/p> S\u014drin-ji<\/strong>: A Tendai Buddhist temple in Higashiyama, Kyoto. This article uses the kangidan described by the temple as an example.<\/p> Maharashtra Tourism, \u201cGanesh Chaturthi\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The steamed type made with rice flour, coconut and jaggery, and offerings to Ganesha.<\/p>\n<\/li> Veg Recipes of India, \u201cUkadiche Modak\u201d<\/a> \u2014 An example of warm rice-flour dough, wrapping methods and the steaming process.<\/p>\n<\/li> Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cGanesha,\u201d 1970.62<\/a> \u2014 The sweet and iconography of the statue from around 1070. Not evidence of present-day formulas.<\/p>\n<\/li> Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, \u201cmodaka\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The broad meaning of the word as a sweet confection.<\/p>\n<\/li> Thomas Kintaert, \u201cRitual Performances in the Natyasastra II,\u201d 2018, pp. 153\u2013154<\/a> \u2014 Offerings in the rites of classical drama.<\/p>\n<\/li> The Indian Express, \u201cIn Pune pizza modaks add pizzazz,\u201d 2023<\/a> \u2014 A literature researcher\u2019s account of related medieval names and of 19th-century households. The classical original texts were not read.<\/p>\n<\/li> ICAR-CRRI, \u201cTraditional Rice Foods,\u201d p. 90<\/a> \u2014 The filling and shaping of kozhukattai in Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n<\/li> Kerala Tourism, \u201cKozhukatta \u2013 the Hosana Palaharam\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Palm Sunday food culture in Kerala.<\/p>\n<\/li> Mochizuki Kaishuku, \u201cRagora o megutte\u201d [On Rahula], 2005, pp. 43, 61<\/a> \u2014 The tale of the great kangigan in the biography of the Buddha, and the identification of the term. The sutra as a whole was not read.<\/p>\n<\/li> S\u014drin-ji, \u201cShoten-sama no sekai e yokoso\u201d [Welcome to the World of Shoten]<\/a> \u2014 The ingredients of the temple\u2019s kangidan and its use as an offering.<\/p>\n<\/li>![\"Many](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/cb18c658187efdd3242219eb5216ddbb4ea2d49dcf849a4db06e980c22b227e0.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nThe Sweet in Ganesha\u2019s Hand<\/h2>\n
![\"Statue](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sweetlore-20261026-figure-f8c53ff3ebc951cc.webp?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
<\/p>\nThe Sweets Named by an Old Word, and Today\u2019s Filled Sweet<\/h2>\n
In South India, the Filling and the Way of Closing Change<\/h2>\n
A Buddhist Tale and Kangidan<\/h2>\n
Glossary<\/h2>\n
References<\/h2>\n
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