One family's palace, half a century of silence, five years to bring it back

In 1774, the Sheherwali Dudhoria family built their ancestral palace on the banks of the Bhagirathi. After standing locked for nearly fifty years, its revival began with the vision of Babu Sudip Kumar Sing Dudhoria — to bring the family’s heritage back to life while keeping its soul intact.

The next generation, Babu Darshan Dudhoria and Bebo Lipika Dudhoria, took this vision forward. Over five years, they worked with Canadian restoration specialist and consultation architect Dr. Samar Chandra to restore Bari Kothi through adaptive reuse, conservation and zero-waste principles — repairing, reusing and preserving rather than replacing.

The restoration became Project Priceless, bringing together 150 people from the surrounding rural community. More than 50 unskilled workers were trained into skilled craftsmen, including masons, carpenters, gardeners and cooks — many of whom continue to be the hands and heart of Bari Kothi today.

What began as the restoration of one ancestral home became something far greater: a living heritage hotel, sustained by the very community that helped bring it back to life.

A cuisine you won't find on any menu outside a Sheherwali home

Bari Kothi's kitchens serve Sheherwali cuisine — the food of the Jain merchant families of Murshidabad, largely unwritten and passed down within homes rather than restaurants. It is entirely vegetarian, built on ingenuity rather than onion and garlic, and finished with a Bengali touch picked up over two centuries on the banks of the Bhagirathi.

Meals are taken together, at set hours, in settings that are themselves part of the story — a riverside breakfast, a formal thali in the Darbar Hall, a courtyard dinner under the stars.