Darbhanga
Darbhanga is the fifth-largest city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Bihar situated centrally in Mithila region.
Darbhanga | |
|---|---|
| Darbhanga City | |
| Nickname(s): Mithila Hridayasthalee, Cultural Capital of Bihar | |
| Coordinates: 26°10′N 85°54′E / 26.17°N 85.9°ECoordinates: 26°10′N 85°54′E / 26.17°N 85.9°E | |
| Country | India |
| State | Bihar |
| Region | Mithila |
| District | Darbhanga |
| Founded by | Darbhangi Khan |
| Named for | Darbhangi Khan |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipal Corporation |
| • Body | Darbhanga Municipal Corporation |
| • Mayor | Anjum Ara |
| • Deputy Mayor | Nazia Hasan |
| • Municipal commissioner | Manesh Kumar Meena, IAS[1] |
| • MP | Gopal Jee Thakur, BJP |
| • MLA | Sanjay Saraogi, BJP |
| Area | |
| • Total | 39.83 km2 (15.38 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 52 m (171 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 380,125 |
| Demonym | Darbhangiya |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Hindi[3] |
| • Additional official | Urdu[4] |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| PIN | |
| Telephone code | 06272 |
| ISO 3166 code | IN-BR |
| Vehicle registration | BR-07 |
| Sex ratio | 1000:910 ♂/♀ |
| Lok Sabha constituency | Darbhanga |
| Vidhan Sabha constituency | Darbhanga, Darbhanga Rural, Bahadurpur, Keoti, Jale, Kusheshwar Asthan, Gaura Bauram, Benipur, Alinagar, Hayaghat |
| Website | darbhanga |
Darbhanga is the headquarters of the Darbhanga district and the Darbhanga division. It was the seat of the erstwhile Khandwala Zamidaar dynasty Under Mughals. It was the capital of Mithila.
It is considered the Medical Capital of North bihar. It has DMCH & second AIIMS Hospital in the State Only after Capital Patna.
Darbhanga is one of the oldest cities in India. Musical, folk art, and literary traditions in Sanskrit, Maithili and Urdu have been passed down generations in Darbhanga and constitute the city's strong cultural background.[7]
History
The city was the capital of the Darbhanga Raj, an estate established in the 16th century, and contains the Anandbagh Palace. It was constituted a municipality in 1864. Darbhanga is home to the Kameshwara Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University (1961), which is located on the grounds of the palace, and the Lalit Narayan Mithila University (1972). Darbhanga has a museum housing archaeological materials, as well as historical and handicrafts exhibits. Darbhanga has been a centre for music since the late 18th century and has produced multiple well-known dhrupad (an ancient form of Indian classical music) musicians. A major rail and road junction, Darbhanga trades in agricultural produce, mangoes, and fish. In addition to food processing, the city has a light manufacturing industry.
Darbhanga is situated on a vast alluvial plain, with low-lying areas containing marshes and lakes. Grains, oilseeds, tobacco, sugarcane, and mangoes are important crops in the region.[8]
Under the British Raj, Darbhanga was a part of Sarkar Tirhut until 1875, when it was constituted into a separate district. Its subdivisions had been constituted earlier – Darbhanga Sadar in 1845, Madhubani in 1866, and Samastipur (then known as Tajpur) in 1867. The city of Darbhanga is said to have been founded by one Darbhangi Khan, about whom practically nothing is known. It is also held that the name Darbhanga is derived from Dwar Banga or Dar-e-Banga, meaning the ‘door of Bengal’. This etymology does not appear to be very correct as the division between Bengal and Bihar has always been held to be further to the east. Nonetheless, the region has a linguistic and cultural affinity with Bengal.[9]
Excavation at Balirajgarh revealed brick fortifications dating back to the 2nd century BC.[10]
Demographics
The 2011 Census of India recorded Darbhanga as an Urban agglomeration with a population of 380,125 while the surrounding district has 3 million people.[11] It is the 5th largest city in Bihar in terms of the urban population.[12] The city has 196,573 males (52.6%) and 183,552 females (47.4%). Darbhanga has an average literacy rate of 79.40%, with male literacy at 85.08% and female literacy at 73.08%.[13] However, as per the document published on 6 March 2021 by the office of District Magistrate Darbhanga, the urban population of Darbhanga stands 380,125[14]
Transport
Railways
Darbhanga Junction lies on the East Central Railway. It is connected directly to all the major cities of India. Laheriasarai Railway Station is Second Major Station of Darbhanga Junction and works as an important Railway Station for people living in south Darbhanga. There are daily and weekly train available for New Delhi, Patna, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Howrah, Amritsar, Pune.
Of the beginning of railway in Darbhanga and its neighbouring areas, The Imperial Gazetteer of India noted:
The famine of 1874 gave a great impetus to the construction of railways, and the District is on the whole well off in the matter of communications. Its southwest corner is traversed for 29 miles by the mainline of the Bengal and North-Western Railway, and also by 25 miles of the new chord-line from Hajipur to Bachwara, which runs parallel to the Ganges embankment from east to west. From Samastipur a line runs to Darbhanga town and there branches off in two directions, the first north-west to Sitamarhi through Kamtaul and Jogiara, and the other due east to Khanwa Ghat on the Kosi (Old Stream) near Pratapganj. The total length of the line within the District is 146 miles. Most of the earthwork for a line from Sakri to Jainagar on the Nepal frontier was completed as relief work during the famine of 1897; and the line, which has now been opened, should tap a large grain supply from Nepal.[15]
Darbhanga Airport
Darbhanga also has its own commercial airport which is connected with all the major cities of India.
Darbhanga Airport (IATA: DBR, ICAO: VE89) is a civil enclave at the Darbhanga Air Force Station of the Indian Air Force, 6 kilometres from Darbhanga City near the NH 527B and NH 27 East-West Corridor Expressway which passes through Darbhanga. The civil enclave is operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The foundation stone for the project was laid by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and then Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu in the presence of state Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha on 24 December 2018. Commercial flights started on 8 November 2020.[16]
Roadways
Darbhanga is connected to other parts of India by NH 27, NH 527B and Bihar State highways 50, 56, 88 and 75. Darbhanga is also connected to Samastipur, Madhubani and Sitamarhi.
The East-West Corridor expressway, which connects Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam, passes through Darbhanga.
The Amas–Darbhanga Expressway NH 119D is an approved 4/6-lane wide access-controlled expressway in India. Once completed, it will be the first expressway in the state of Bihar. NH 119D connects Amas village in Gaya district to Bela Nawada village in Darbhanga district.
Geography
Darbhanga is located in the northern part of Bihar. It lies between 25.53 degrees - 26.27 degrees N and 85.45 degrees - 86.25 degrees E at an average elevation of 171 feet (52 m). Darbhanga district covers an area of 2,279 sq km. Darbhanga is bounded by Madhubani district on north, by Samastipur district on south, by Saharsa district on east and by Sitamarhi district and Muzaffarpur district on west. Being located in Mithilanchal, Darbhanga district has a vast fertile alluvial plain devoid of any hills. It has a gentle slope from north to south direction having depression on the center. Darbhanga experiences humid subtropical climate. This city experiences three main seasons which are winter, summer and rainy season. May is the hottest month when temperature reaches up to 43 degrees C. Darbhanga district receives average 1142.3 mm rainfall and almost 92 % of the annual rainfall is received during monsoon.
Climate
Darbhanga has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cwa).
| Climate data for Darbhanga (1971–1990, extremes 1901–1998) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 30.6 (87.1) | 34.1 (93.4) | 40.6 (105.1) | 43.9 (111.0) | 44.1 (111.4) | 43.6 (110.5) | 39.3 (102.7) | 38.6 (101.5) | 38.6 (101.5) | 39.4 (102.9) | 34.1 (93.4) | 36.6 (97.9) | 44.1 (111.4) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 23.1 (73.6) | 25.8 (78.4) | 31.0 (87.8) | 35.1 (95.2) | 35.0 (95.0) | 34.9 (94.8) | 32.5 (90.5) | 32.8 (91.0) | 32.5 (90.5) | 31.6 (88.9) | 29.0 (84.2) | 24.8 (76.6) | 30.7 (87.3) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 16.2 (61.2) | 18.4 (65.1) | 23.0 (73.4) | 27.1 (80.8) | 28.2 (82.8) | 28.8 (83.8) | 28.2 (82.8) | 28.4 (83.1) | 28.2 (82.8) | 26.5 (79.7) | 22.4 (72.3) | 17.7 (63.9) | 24.4 (75.9) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 9.2 (48.6) | 11.0 (51.8) | 15.1 (59.2) | 19.4 (66.9) | 21.2 (70.2) | 22.9 (73.2) | 23.8 (74.8) | 24.2 (75.6) | 23.8 (74.8) | 21.2 (70.2) | 15.8 (60.4) | 10.6 (51.1) | 18.2 (64.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 0.0 (32.0) | 0.0 (32.0) | 4.1 (39.4) | 9.4 (48.9) | 10.6 (51.1) | 11.0 (51.8) | 13.5 (56.3) | 15.5 (59.9) | 13.5 (56.3) | 10.0 (50.0) | 7.2 (45.0) | 2.6 (36.7) | 0.0 (32.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 13 (0.5) | 14 (0.6) | 9 (0.4) | 29 (1.1) | 76 (3.0) | 139 (5.5) | 353 (13.9) | 254 (10.0) | 193 (7.6) | 73 (2.9) | 6 (0.2) | 7 (0.3) | 1,166 (45.9) |
| Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 4.6 | 7.6 | 16.4 | 12.2 | 10.5 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 63.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 68 | 63 | 49 | 56 | 60 | 70 | 78 | 79 | 79 | 73 | 66 | 67 | 67 |
| Source 1: NOAA (1971–1990)[17] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: India Meteorological Department[18] | |||||||||||||
Education
Notable educational institutions include:
Medical colleges
- All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Darbhanga( Under Construction )
- Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital
- Mithila Minority Dental College and Hospital
University
- Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Regional Centre
- Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University
- Lalit Narayan Mithila University
- Maulana Azad National Urdu University
Engineering and technology colleges
Colleges
Schools.
Tourism
Darbhanga has various tourist attractions and is among the oldest cities of Bihar. Tourist spots include:
Media and communications
All India Radio has a 20 kW medium-wave radio station in Darbhanga which transmits various programmes of mass interest and covers a part of North Bihar as well as the Terai of Nepal.[citation needed]
Doordarshan has one DD National and one DD News LPT relay transmitters.[citation needed]
Notable people
- Kameshwar Singh, Maharaja
- Lakshmeshwar Singh Maharaja
- Rameshwar Singh Maharaja
- Sanjay Mishra, Bollywood actor
- Veena Devi, politician and member of the 17th Lok Sabha
- Abdul Bari Siddiqui, MLA
- Badri Narain Sinha, IPS
- Bhawana Kanth, first female fighter pilot of India
- Binod Bihari Verma, writer
- Binodanand Jha, former MP
- Gangesha Upadhyaya, mathematician and philosopher
- Gonu Jha Pratyutpannamati
- Gopal Jee Thakur, former MLA and current MP
- Dr. Ashok Kr. Yadav, MP from Madhubani Lok Sabha constituency
- Gul Mohammad Khan, Bangladeshi musician
- H. C. Verma, physicist
- Hukmdev Narayan Yadav, former MP
- Imtiaz Ali (director), Bollywood director
- Kirti Azad, former MP and cricketer
- M J Warsi, linguist
- Nagarjun, poet, writer, essayist, and novelist
- Narayan Das, politician
- Nigamananda Saraswati, Hindu monk
- Prabhat Jha (politician), politician
- Parmanand Jha, first vice president of Nepal
- Ram Chatur Mallick, musician
- Ramnandan Mishra, Indian nationalist who fought for India's freedom from British rule
- Sultan Ahmad, former MLA
- Sanjay Saraogi, MLA
- Dr. Murari Mohan Jha, MLA from Keoti Vidhan Sabha Assembly Constituency
- Satya Narayan Sinha, politician
- Surendra Jha 'Suman', poet, freedom fighter, politician, essayist, literary critic, journalist, publisher and academician
- Jyoti Kumari, Sirhulli, cyclist and Bal Puraskar recipient 2021[19]
- Tariq-ur-Rehman, cricketer
- Tochi Raina, singer, composer, and philosopher
- Yamuna Karjee, Indian independence activist
- Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf, ethnologist
- Ritviz, electronic singer
- Manas Bihari Verma, Padam Shri decorated Aeronautical scientist, LCA Tejas[20]
See also
References
- ^ "About Municipal Commissioner of Darbhanga". The Times of India.
- ^ "Darbhanga City".
- ^ (PDF). nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ (PDF). 25 May 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017.
- ^ "STD & PIN Codes". Retrieved 23 January 2020.
- ^ Darbhanga
- ^ "Darbhanga : Heart of Mithilaanchal".
- ^ "Darbhanga | India". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ "History | Welcome to Darbhanga District | India". Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ A., Ghosh (1965). Indian Archaeology:A Review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. pp. 3–5.
- ^ "Darbhanga City Population Census 2011-2022 | Bihar".
- ^ https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s3beed13602b9b0e6ecb5b568ff5058f07/uploads/2021/03/2021030687.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Census of India: View Population Details". www.censusindia.gov.in. Government of India. 2001. from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s3beed13602b9b0e6ecb5b568ff5058f07/uploads/2021/03/2021030687.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Imperial Gazetteer2 of India, Volume 11, page 158 -- Imperial Gazetteer of India -- Digital South Asia Library". from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ "मिथिलांचल के लिए खुशखबरी! दरभंगा एयरपोर्ट का संचालन शुरू, देखिए अंदर की तस्वीरें". Prabhat Khabar - Hindi News (in Hindi). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ "Darbhanga Climate Normals 1971–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on 23 December 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ (PDF). India Meteorological Department. December 2016. p. M33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ Jha, Binay Kumar (26 January 2021). "Republic Day: Darbhanga 'cycle girl' Jyoti Kumari gets PM's award". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ "Former President Kalam's close associate scientist Manas Verma dies - The Hindu". The Hindu. 4 May 2021.
External links
- Official website