After being derelict for half a century, located on the banks of the River Hooghly, Bari Kothi was majestically restored. Bari Kothi is an old Jagat Seth house. The Jagat Seths are a wealthy Jain clan from Rajasthan, sometimes referred to as the “Rothschilds of India”.

Led by brother-sister duo Darshan Dudhoria & Lipika Dudhoria, and guided by Canadian restoration specialist architect Dr. Samar Chandra, what was a crumbling ruin has now been turned into one of the most opulent and fabulous hotels in Bengal.

FLASH POINT: They take their food seriously at Bari Kothi. You will never eat the same thing twice – nor will you eat in the same location twice. The dishes are inspired by the Sheherwali cuisine which is a confluence of Rajasthani, Bengali and Nawabi dishes. It is recommended that you arrive at Bari Kothi with an empty stomach. You certainly will not leave with one. 

The backstory

Bari Kothi was built in the late 1700s. Bari Kothi means the “Palace of the Elder”. It was titled so as it was the house of the elder brother, Rai Bahadur Budh Sing Dudhoria of the Sheherwali community. Sheherwali is the name of a community of Jain businessmen from Rajasthan. They migrated to Bengal for the economic opportunity the region offered. Bengal was the wealthiest region of Mughal India, largely due to the textile trade. Murshidabad became its capital when the local ruler (Nawab) relocated from Dhaka in 1704. Nawabi rule was neutered by the British East India Company at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Subsequently, the economic and political power of Bengal shifted to Calcutta. There the British had set up camp. Bari Kothi was derelict for decades. Over the course of five years, architect Dr. Samar Chandra restored Bari Kothi to its former Sheherwali glory.

The drinking & dining

Food features prominently in the Sheherwali community. Strictly vegetarian, it is perhaps the most expansive and vibrant vegetarian food to be found in India, principally due to the mélange of cultures that have contributed to its geneses. Staple examples of the Sheherwali cuisine include wood-apple chutney, puffed rice with jaggery, steamed dumplings stuffed with dried milk and mango pudding. Traditionally Rajasthani food use a lot of gram flour and pulses prepared in oil. Although this can be found in Sheherwali dishes too, the influence of Bengal can be tasted in the prodigious use of regional spices and plenty of veggies including bottle gourd, cucumber and okra. Bari Kothi prepares multiple-course meals for their guests and – for the adventurous – can advise how to use your fingers to mix the food and taste it in the correct succession to maximise the flavour.

The neighbourhood

Bari Kothi is situated in Azimganj on the banks of the Hooghly River on the opposite side to Murshidabad. It is worth taking a walk around the neighbourhood to explore this sleepy little town which is thick with history. Just around the corner from Bari Kothi is a Jain Temple, patronised by the Dudhoria Sheherwali family for generations. Here you will see evidence of the region’s cosmopolitan past in the Dutch tiles that feature on the temple walls. There is a vibrant little wet market (where many of the ingredients for the kitchen are sourced) and a railway station leading south to Kolkata. A short tuk-tuk drive away, you can find a collection of terracotta temples built in the 1700s. Upon the outside you can see stuccos from the Ramayana, including depictions of Sita, consort or Rama, and the multi-headed demon-king and chief antagonist, Ravana.

The positive impact

The team at Bari Kothi have been recruited from local communities; men and women who often have come from deprived economic backgrounds. There are many husband-and-wife couples working at Bari Kothi: the women who will serve you at mealtimes often have their husbands driving the tuk-tuks and boats of the hotel. Many of this workforce will be at the hotel during the high season, and then return to their villages to work on their family farms during the monsoon. The restoration of the property was carried out by ordinary and unskilled labourers from the local community. The lack of skilled masons, artisans, plumbers and engineers located near the site made the restoration much more time consuming. But it means that upon its completion, more than 50 unskilled labourers became skilled labourers and are now trained to restore old structures.

What we love

When Sampan checked-into Bari Kothi for the first time, we were taken out that evening by the passionate and widely enthusiastic manager Abhirup. Abhirup took us onto a small, motorised raft on the Hooghly and we chugged gently upstream in the fading light of the day. Darjeeling tea was served and we sipped together, munching contentedly on shortbread. On the banks of the river, teenage boys sat together in small, lethargic groups, sharing cigarettes that smelt of something more than tobacco. We disembarked at Bari Kothi’s organic farm, Abhirup leading the way wielding a large stick to thwack away protruding vines. At one point – to our initial alarm – he released a high pitch bark, with roused a refracted echo from the packs of jackals skulking about the underbrush. Here we stood, as the sun set, amongst a landscape that gave truth to the region’s moniker “Sonar Bangla” – Golden Bengal.