View of Janai-once a village...
Janai(জনাই) – ‘জ’ আছে তবু নাই, was the remark given by Rabindranath Tagore when he visited for the first time in the Janai palace. Janai is a small village located in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. The Janai station is located just in front of the famous “Hawa Khana” garden and beside Janai High School. It was Saraswati River that once upon a time passed through this village up to the Rajganj of Howrah District which had some historic relevances.
1. Janai station 2. The Saraswati river
The Saptagram Village the then Capital of lower parts of Bengal and the central industrial capital was situated by the bank of Saraswati River. Historically famous Bijoy Singh travelled to Ceylon through this river. The “Chandi Deul” of Behula-Lakhindar still exists by the side of the river few minutes away from Janai village at Chanditala.
The Baksha village exixts to the North-east of the Janai village. The Raghunath Jeu Navaratna Temple,the twelve Shiva Temple and Badyi Matar (Kali) Mandir has a profound glory and fame in this area.
The Zamindar Family of Janai resides here since decades. Janai was predominantly a Brahmin populated village. The “Monohara sweet” of Janai is popular all over Bengal. The village caters home to several popular confectioners of Bengal. The ancestor of Bheem Nag, Paran Chandra Nag a confectioner and owner of a small sweet shop in the village of Janai went to Calcutta to set up a shop in Bowbazar.
The village of Janai has even welcomed several honorary guests like Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in the early days and vetarans like Satyajit Ray, Actors Jahar Ganguly, Kali Banerjee, Sabita Basu, Aparna Sen . The Janai Palace has also shared credits for lending its support for several film shootings that includes- “Hangsha Mithun”, “Debi”, "Kinu Goyalar Goli", “Agnijug” etc.
There are several primary schools, high school, motor training school, primary health centre, post office and nursing homes. The Mother Dairy plant is located just few kilometers away from Janai at Dankuni.
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3 & 4. The Raghunath Jeu Navaratna Temple
5 & 6. Badyi Mata (Kali) Mandir
9. Bengali feature film Hangsha Mithun being shot at the Main Darbar Hall of Janai Palace
8. A Glimpse of Janai
7. The Dwadosh (twelve) Shiva mandir
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10. Janai Training School