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, 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 and land 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 millions of rupees and lands and houses from him. He donated even his personal residence at Darbhanga (Anandbagh Palace) to the Sanskrit University in Darbhanga.
