Bihar

Bihar State is the 12th largest state in present day India. Bihar lies with West Bengal to the east, Uttar Pradesh to the west and Nepal to the North.

Darbhanga is the capital of the classical region of Mithila in the north eastern part of Bihar state. It was the biggest and richest Zamindari in India, spread over 2500 square miles consisting of more than 7000 villages, and with 15000 officials to look after the zamindari and several industrial units (cotton, sugar, jute, aviation, automobile dealership, share trading, media, iron & steel, dairies, cold storages, paper, etc).

The Maharajas of Darbhanga were not only known world wide for their benevolence, but also for their courage to speak out against the government inside the Council of States if anything was considered wrong by them. The last Maharaja, the late Sir Kameshwar Singh, had friends amongst the leading ruling houses of Europe such as the UK, France, Spain, Austria, Russia, etc. He donated money, land and houses to organizations such as YMCA and YWCA in Cairo, Egypt and Calcutta, the Queen's Fund, Canadian Nurses Association, RAF, etc. In India hundreds of educational institutions such as Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Allahabad University, Patna University, etc received similar help from him. He donated even his personal residence at Darbhanga (Anandbagh Palace) to the Sanskrit University in Darbhanga.

Alternative spelling

Behar, Bahar

Archives

Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation

See also

• Indigo Plantation
• Moharampore Cemetery

External links

• Early Sugar Industry of Bihar. Bihargatha.

Historical books online

• "Bahar" page 276 The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: Volume 3 Athanaric - Bassano Google Books 1835
• History of Behar Indigo Factories ; Reminiscences of Behar ; Tirhoot and its inhabitants of the past ; History of Behar Light Horse Volunteers by Minden Wilson 1908 Archive.org
• Bengal and Assam, Behar and Orissa : their History, People, Commerce and Industrial Resources compiled by Somerset Playne, assisted by J. W. Bond, edited by Arnold Wright 1917 Archive.org
• Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Sikkim by L S S O’Malley 1917 Archive.org. A volume in the series Provincial Geographies of India.
• The Dutch In Bengal And Bihar 1740-1825 A D by Dr Kalikinkar Datta 1948 Osmania University Digital Library [OUDL]. May only be available Indian office hours (IST 10 am to 6 pm), (IST = GMT+5:30). Also available Archive.org version
• An Account Of The District Of Bhagalpur In 1810-11 by Francis Buchanan. 1939 edition for the Bihar and Orissa Research Society. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
• A Handbook Of The Bihar And Orissa Provincial Records (1771-1859) 1933 Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.