Opening hours: No formal hours; open public space.
The Sarasanka Dighi is a vast rectangular tank of unambiguous proportions: 142 acres of still water beside the town of Dantan, an expanse so large that it distorts your sense of distance and scale in the flat landscape. It is said to be the largest man-made water body in undivided Medinipur district, and possibly in all of West Bengal.
The tank's origins are disputed in the way that matters most in India: by competing myths. One tradition holds that it was built by King Shashanka (590-625 CE), the Gour king who conquered Dandabhukti in the early 7th century, a claim consistent with the fact that the site is locally called 'Sasanka Dighi'. Another legend (perhaps more frequently cited by local schoolchildren) holds that the Pandavas, during their year of incognito exile (Agyatavas) in the Mahabharata, stopped here to allow Draupadi to wash her hands; the great Bhima excavated the entire lake in a single day for this purpose. The place is also called Pandav Ghat, and the attribution to the Pandavas is the kind of origin story that attaches itself, in India, to any sufficiently large and mysterious man-made feature.
Whatever its actual origins, Sarasanka Dighi is beautiful in winter. The water is still, reflecting flat cloud and bare sky; egrets and cormorants work the shallows; fishermen place their nets at the far corners. It is above all a local destination — Dantan families picnic here, children swim and the ghats (bathing steps) at the tank edge are used daily — and visiting it as such, rather than as a sightseer, yields the best experience. The most rewarding time is late afternoon, when the light changes colour and the birds become more active.
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