Darbhanga

The old sleepy town of Dargbhanga,Bihar, doesn't have a lot of things to sport. But one thing that has enriched it, is history. Known for its numerous lakes, this town has many a stories to share. 

History:

North Bihar was under a state of lawlessness at the end of the empire of the Tughlaq dynasty. Tughlaq had attacked and taken control of Bihar, and from the end of the Tughlaq Empire until the establishment of the Mughal Empire in 1526 there was anarchy and chaos in Bihar. Emperor Akbar (ruled 1556–1605) realized that taxes from Mithila could only be collected if there was a king who could ensure peace in the Mithila region. The Brahmins were dominant in the Mithila region and Mithila had Brahmin kings in the past.

Emperor Akbar summoned Rajpandit Chandrapati Thakur to Delhi from Garh Mangala (now in Madhya Pradesh) and asked him to name one of his sons who could be made caretaker and tax collector for his lands in Mithila. Chandrapati Thakur named his middle son, Mahesh Thakur, and Emperor Akbar declared Mahesh Thakur as the caretaker of Mithila on the day of Ram Navami in 1577 AD.

The family and descendants of Mahesh Thakur gradually consolidated their power in social, agrarian, and political matters and came to be regarded as kings of Madhubani. Darbhanga became the seat of power of the Raj Darbhanga family from 1762. They also had a palace at Rajnagar Bihar situated in Madhubani district. They bought land from local people. They became known as a Khandavala family (the richest landlord). This family was not regarded as kings by the British Raj but they were allowed to use the prefix Maharaja, and later Maharajadhiraj, by the British. There is no documentation for this as it was a verbal commitment. Although the British never granted them formal status as a ruling princely state, they had all the trappings of a princely state. [source: wikipedia]

Maharaja Kameshwar Singh with the drama group of Darbhanga

Gayatri Devi at Darbhanga House, Delhi

Gayatri Devi and Lady Mountbatten at Darbhanga House, Delhi

Maharaja Kameshwar Singh with the King of Nepal

I had a really bad VIVA today. Not just today, the day before, too. Nearly cried in front of the examiner! I was a nervous wreck and kept on blabbering unintelligible things. Said things and gave wrong answers which I knew the answer to! Made a complete fool of myself. But you know what I wasn't so scared of loosing marks, but I was scared of appearing like a blabbering idiot; which I did at the end. I couldn't answer what digitization was, can you believe it!!!!