16 hours ago
From tradition to trade: Pithas rule Raja season
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Bhubaneswar: By the time Raja arrives, the air in Odisha is thick with more than just festivity—it's filled with the nostalgic aroma of pithas wafting through kitchens, shops, and street corners.
Pithas, once painstakingly prepared at home over days, are now enjoying a vibrant city-wide revival—not just as festive delicacies but as the centrepiece of a booming seasonal economy.
With busy lifestyles and shrinking kitchen time, many urban families — especially working women — now prefer to buy these festive delicacies rather than prepare them at home. "Our mothers and grandmothers spent days preparing for Raja.
With work and family commitments, it's hard to do that now. But thanks to these shops, we still get the same flavours and nostalgia," said Monalisa Mohanty, a nurse at a private hospital.
Several sweetshops, restaurants, and dedicated pitha stalls are offering a delightful spread of traditional cakes, including the richly baked poda pitha, manda, kakara, arisa, muan pitha, chhunchipatra pitha, chakuli pitha, and more.
"Like every year, this year too, the sales of pithas have been phenomenal. On the first day of the Raja festival—Saturday alone—we did business worth Rs 2.87 lakh. By Sunday afternoon, we had crossed Rs 1 lakh in sales.
We have prepared assorted pitha packets, which are in high demand," said Sabyasachi Kar, manager of Odisha Tourism Development Corporation's (OTDC) Panthaniwas in Bhubaneswar.
While poda pitha is priced between Rs 200 and Rs 400 per kilogram, other sweets are sold per piece, making them accessible to a wider range of buyers.
For women entrepreneurs, Raja has also opened up new opportunities. Lopamudra Dash, who runs a home-based pitha venture in the Unit-IV area, said, "What started as a hobby during the lockdown has now become my main source of income during festivals. I got over 150 pre-orders this Raja.
Many women like me, who know how to make pithas but did not see it as a business, are now tapping into this demand."
Even large hotels and restaurants have caught the Raja fever. Many have curated special Odia food festivals, offering traditional thalis and pitha platters. "For us, it is not only business but a way to honour Odia heritage," said Anurag Jena, manager of a popular city hotel.
