“PITHA” the heritage food of Odisha during the traditional festival: A scientific studies on its nutraceutical and nutritional analysis

Abstract

Odisha has known in worldwide for its traditional food, culture and heritage. Orissa has witnessed ceaseless human endeavor in the field of art, craft, sculpture and temple building activities for about 2500 years during her recorded history. Endowed with nature’s beauty and bounty, Orissa boasts of a rich cultural heritage on different types of cuisine like Pitha and tradition of music, dance, dramatics, art & crafts of many splendored varieties and forms; which elegantly emanate from its magnificent monuments, ancient caves, rock-cut sculptures and innumerable temples found still intact with all its pristine glory and grandeur. The traditional Pitha of Odisha has an identity in its taste. Commercialization has provided all the scope to have the taste of Assamese traditional food at large. Among several festival,  Rajo fever surmounts everyone and everything.  “Rajo” comes from the word “Rajoswala” which means a menstruating woman celebrated in Odisha. Besides, several festival like Ratha Yatra, naukha, ambouysa, maker shankrati, shabitri vat festival also celebrated. During Rajo festival, some special delicious Pithas such as Poda, Manda, Arisha and Chakuli etc. cooked [1]. Some other special food attributes such as Muga Bundi, Khira Gaja, and Chena Poda. . We inherit them and we should preserve them well so that we can gift them to our future generation. With the famous traditional snacks,   Pithas are a variety of food similar to pancakes, dumplings or fritters, originating from the Indian subcontinent, common in Bangladesh and India. Pitha can be sweet or savory, and usually made from a dough or batter, which is then steamed, fried or griddled. Few may be set or shaped after cooking.  The traditional foods are still in the cottage industry scale [2]. Small groups of youth have started commercialization of such traditional foods in cottage industry scale or someone has started individually. Hence, There is enough scope of growing such industry in large scale and there is every chance of having one such recopies of Pitha”s  in near future.

Cite as

Babita Kumari, Bhalchandra P. Vibhute, & Hitesh Solanki. (2022). "PITHA" the heritage food of Odisha during the traditional festival: A scientific studies on its nutraceutical and nutritional analysis. Research and Reviews: Journal of Environmental Sciences, 4(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7109739