She was built by the Scottish shipbuilder John Brown & Company and completed in March 1958.

On 28 June 1951, the British Admiralty ordered the fifth anti-aircraft frigate of the Leopard-class for the Royal Navy, to be called HMS Panther.

[2] Brahmaputra was laid down at John Brown's Clydebank shipyard on 20 October 1955 and was launched on 15 March 1957.

[4] The ship's main gun armament consisted of two twin 4.5 inch (113 mm) Mark 6 dual-purpose gun turrets, mounted one forward and one aft,[4] with a twin 40mm Bofors mount providing close-in anti-aircraft defence.

[4] On 17 September 1965, during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, the Pakistani submarine Ghazi made a torpedo attack against a target off Bombay that was believed to be INS Brahmaputra.