“It was the winter afternoons, when our mothers and grandmothers used to make gohona bori at home in Kolkata and keep them out to dry. There was not much ado about it; it was simply part of their daily lives, and they did it effortlessly.”
Sandip Maiti, founder of the Turiyo Foundation, which works in rural development, remembers this fondly. He acknowledges, however, that the practice is no longer common in the city. Having grown up around this culinary art, he began working to revive it in 2021. Today, the main hubs of its production are in the Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts of West Bengal, where women are largely involved in its making — a delicate process carried out entirely by hand.
What Is Gohona Bori ?
Gohona bori is a dried lentil snack made by soaking, grinding and shaping seasoned lentil paste into intricate, jewellery-like patterns resembling alpana art. The shapes are then sun-dried during the winter months before being fried and eaten. Gohona means jewellery or ornament in Bengali, and the name reflects the delicate, decorative patterns pressed into each bori.
Its artistry has long attracted attention beyond the kitchen. In 1930, Seba Maiti, one of Rabindranath Tagore’s students, presented him with gohona bori made by her mother and grandmother. He was so captivated by it that he wrote to her family seeking permission to preserve photographs of the bori at the Art Building of Shantiniketan. The artist Nandalal Bose described it as a jewel in the Bengali mother’s jewel box and wanted to publish a book on it. In 1954, gohona bori was even proudly exhibited at the 59th session of the Indian National Congress, held in Kalyani.
The Preparation
At the heart of making gohona bori is a skill that cannot easily be taught through a mould or an instrument: creating the intricate, jewellery-like design in a single, uninterrupted movement.
The process begins with cleaning and washing black gram, followed by soaking it overnight in water. The soaked lentils are then ground twice by hand using a flat mortar and stone pestle, before the soft paste is whisked. A thin layer of poppy seeds is spread over a flat platter, and the batter is then slowly piped into the preferred design.
The shaped bori is left to dry in the sun and cool air. Once sufficiently dried, it is ready to be fried and eaten.
In Bengal’s climate, only the winter months, roughly from November to February, provide the optimal conditions for making this delicacy. The timing is crucial. If it clouds over even after half a day of preparation, the entire batch can be lost, as the soaked lentil paste cannot be stored or preserved for later use.
To this day, the process remains almost entirely handmade. Some people use machine blenders to grind soaked lentils, but purists maintain that the texture is not the same as when lentils are ground the traditional way with stone grinding tools known locally as shil-nora.
Keeping The Tradition Alive
Making gohona bori is often described as a dying art. Mechanised, year-round commercial alternatives have infiltrated the market, while members of the community are also increasingly looking towards other forms of employment. When Maiti began his work in 2021, his initial instinct, therefore, was to scale up the craft.
“Our early efforts were centred on commercialising the product and building a market for it. We have since moved away from that and adopted a slow, sustainable approach to preserving this dying art form. Our main goal now is to safeguard this heritage food art in its pristine, traditional form, free from the pressures of commercialisation. We want the craft — its techniques, patience, and authenticity — to survive on its own terms, for its own sake,” he said.
One way he hopes to achieve this is by sharing his knowledge with people interested in learning the craft, while also creating an alternative source of income for women in the community. From December 2026 onwards, the foundation will begin a learning residency programme, hosting a small number of individuals each winter in Purba Medinipur. Participants will learn to make gohona bori hands-on, using the shil-nora and other traditional tools, directly from the women associated with the foundation.
The experience runs over two nights. It begins with soaking the lentils (dal) overnight, followed by preparing the batter in two stages. Participants are guided through each step by the curators and local women assisting with the programme, learning the nuances of grinding, shaping and setting out the bori. The shaped bori is then sun-dried for a day and a half before being packed and carried back home to be enjoyed with loved ones.
Participants get to take home all the gohona bori they personally make during their two-day stay. Guests stay at the Maiti family’s estate, a remote, two-plus-acre property in a Bengal village. The setting and stay are considered part of the experience itself, alongside the craft-learning.
A Life Beyond The Local
Elsewhere, Sujoy Chatterjee’s Amar Khamar, which specialises in bringing Bengal’s natural food ingredients to the table, is also working closely with gohona bori. The organisation sells it both as an ingredient and in cooked form as a food in different cities across India and in Europe.
One of the biggest challenges, however, remains transportation. Gohona bori is extremely prone to breaking if it is not handled with care. Amar Khamar has taken responsibility for collecting the gohona bori from the makers and transporting it to customers, thereby relieving the artisans of the risks and losses associated with breakage during transit.
Simultaneous efforts are also underway at the government level to revive the craft by giving it greater visibility at various fairs and international forums.
(With inputs from Amar Khamar and Turiyo Foundation)
Read More: A Tale of Two Cities: Sohini Banerjee’s Journey Through Bengali Food
Also Read: These Spots In The Country Are Bringing Indigenous Cuisines To Your Tables
