Palanpur is a city and a municipality in Banaskantha district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Palanpur is the administrative center of that district. The town is well-connected by road and rail; the nearest airport is at Ahmedabad, about 135 km away.

Legend has it that Palanpur was first settled by a certain Prahladan, belonging to the Paramara clan of rajputs, who received the surrounding area as appanage from his elder brother who ruled from what is now Mount Abu. It is known as Prahladanpur in history of Jainism. Palanpur town later became the seat of the eponymous princely state in British India.

The town was once heavily fortified with seven gates providing the only means of thoroughfare; these are now in ruins. Of much more recent vintage are the other monuments that dot the town: the 'Keertistumbh' or "victory tower" was erected in the 1930s, as were the Jorawar palace and the Balaram palace. The well-known temple of Balaram Mahadev is situated about 20 km from Palanpur.

The Jessore sloth-bear sanctuary, a reserve forest sprawling over 180 km². and home to several endangered species such as the Indian sloth-bear, leopard, wild boar and porcupine, lies about 45 km from the town.There is the famous Temple Ambaji which is 55 km from here. It is also the ancestral birthplace of the majority of India's diamond trading families. India's modern diamond cutting industry was founded by several Palanpuri Jain families who, in 1909, met to devise a means of lifting their village from poverty, eventually settling on the diamond trade. Because of its remote location, the families started their businesses in Bombay and, later, Surat. However, they still maintain close ties to their ancestral home.

India's diamond industry, still dominated by Palanpuri Jains, now processes the majority of diamonds used in jewellery. Earlier Palanpur was known as flower city because of scents available here. Palanpur is well known in Gujarati literature with its shayars like Shunya Palanpuri, Agam Palanpuri, Shail Palanpuri. Famous Gujarati poet Chandrankant Bakshi is also belong to Palanpur. This city is also a birth place of several personalities such as Bharat Shah (a Bollywood film Producer and Financer), B.K.Gadhavi(A former Member of Parliament of Congress Party).

Princely flag of PalanpurPalanpur was the seat of a princely state ruled by the Lohani clan of Afghans. While the earlier history of the family is obscure, the family has apparently lived in India since at least the 16th century; a forbear of the family is reputed to have wed the foster-sister of the mughal emperor Akbar and received Palanpur and surrounding areas as dowry. However, the family comes into historical prominence during the period of instability that followed the demise of Aurangzeb in the early 18th century. It was overrun soon afterwards by the Marathas; the Lohanis followed the trend of seeking recourse in the HEIC against them and finally entered the subsidiary alliance system in 1817, along with all other neighbouring states.

The state encompassed an area of 1766 km² (682 mi²) and a population, in 1901, of 222,627. The town of Palanpur housed a population of only 8000 people that year. The state commanded a revenue of approximately Rs.50,000/- per year, and paid a tribute to the Gaekwad, the Maratha ruler of Baroda, of Rs.2,564/- per year. It was traversed by the main line of the Rajputana-Malwa railway, and contained the British cantonment of Deesa. Wheat, rice and sugar-cane were the chief products. Watered by the Sabarmati river, the state was heavily forested in its northern reached (the present-day Jessore sanctuary) but undulating and open in the south and east. The country was on the whole somewhat hilly, being at the edge of the Aravalli Range.