Panihati
India · Asia
About Panihati
Panihati is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
There is a legendary belief that Maharaja Chandraketu of Deganga established a garh (fort) at Panihati in the 13th century. There is an association of goddess Bhawani with the fort. In the early days when river transport was the primary means of communication, Panihati was a major trading and business centre, then known as Pannyahati (Emporium for Merchandise). Scholars feel that the name has come from the word Pannyahatic. Panihati is mentioned in several Vaishnava Padavali literary texts – Chaitanya Mangal Kavya by Jayananda and Lochandas in the 16th century, Sri Chaitanya Bhagawat by Brindaban Das in 1548, Bansi Bistar by Nityannda, Vaishnava Namdeva by Debaki Nandan, Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam by Krishnadas Kabiraj in 1580–1610, Bhakti Ratnakar and Chaitanya Chandroday. Panihati Municipality was established in 1900. This place is said to be visited by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on his way to Puri & later by his close associate Nityananda too, due to which Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider...
Panihati travel guide
Understand
Panihati consists of three key neighbourhoods:
Agarpara (আগরপাড়া Āgorpāṛā) Sodepur (সোদপুর Sōdpur) Sukchar (সুখচর Sukhchor)
Getting there
By train 1 Agarpara SDAH . (updated Feb 2026) 2 Sodpur SDAH . (updated Feb 2026)
By boat 3 Panihati Ferry Ghat. (updated Feb 2026)
See
1 Baro Mandir Ghat (বারো মন্দির ঘাট Bārō Mondir Ghāṭ). A row of 12 Shiva temples along the Hooghly River. (updated Feb 2026) 2 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Temple. (updated Feb 2026) 3 Gandhi Memorial Asram (Sodepur Khadi Pratisthan), Sodepur. Founded in 1921 by Satish Chandra Dasgupta, a close aide of Mahatma Gandhi. The institution occupies an important place in Indian independence movement and which Gandhi himself called it his second home like Sabarmati Ashram. He visited the place several times during the period of 1939 to 1947. (updated Aug 2022) 4 Giribala Dasi Thakurbari, Agarpara. A "pancharatna" (five-pinnacled) temple dedicated to Radha-Krishna. The temple premise resembles that of Dakshineswar with a row of Shiva temples at riverside and a ghat at the middle, but without the crowd. The temple was built by Giribala Dasi, a granddaughter-in-law of Rani Rashmoni, who constructed the Dakshineswar temple. (updated Feb 2026) 5 Gobinda Kumar House (গোবিন্দ কুমারের বাড়ি Gōbindo Kumārer Bāṛi) (Peerless Nagar ). One of the elegant edifices on the Hooghly River. It originally belonged to Asutosh De or Chatu Babu, one of the figures of the 19th-century Bengali Renaissance. In 1873, during a dengue outbreak, Debendranath Tagore took refuge at this house with his family. This is where his son Rabindranath had his first encounter with nature, away from the busy life in Kolkata, something he later vividly recalled in his autobiography My Reminiscences. He revisited the house in 1919 after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Punjab, and it was here where he decided to renounce his knighthood in protest. As the home eventually passed on the hands of Mymensingh zamindar Gopal Das Choudhury, he opened a home for destitute girls after his father, which is still active. (updated Jun 2026) 6 Saheb Bagan Bari. (updated Feb 2026)
Buy
1 Sriniketan Fashions Pvt. Ltd., Station Road, Sodepur, ☏ +91 33 25834436, +91 33 25834437, +91 33 25834438.
Sleep
1 Nihar On The Ganges, Sukchar. A heritage house turned into a luxury resort. It originally belonged to Radhakanta Deb of the Sovabazar Raj family. (updated Jul 2026)
Go next
Dakshineswar Khardaha Konnagar, across the river
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.