Darbhanga
The Shiva shrine in the Kosi wetlands, and Ahalya Sthan from the Ramayana.
North Bihar
Places around Darbhanga
- Ahalya Sthan: This is the place where, in the Ramayana, Ahalya was released from her curse and rose from the stone at...
- Kusheshwar Asthan: It is the leading Shaiva shrine of the Darbhanga countryside, called the Baba Dham of Mithila, and...
- Shyama Mai Temple: It is the principal Shakta temple of Darbhanga city and a major site for mundan and other sanskars
- Manokamna Temple: Devotees come to make wishes (manokamna) before the Hanuman image
More to see and do
Madhubani painting
Mithila's wall and floor painting, taken onto paper in the 1960s and GI-registered in 2007; the villages still paint.
Line and colour paintings of gods, nature and weddings, practised in Jitwarpur, Ranti and other villages around Madhubani.
Sikki grass work
Golden marsh grass coiled into boxes and figures that Mithila brides still carry to their new homes; GI-registered.
A women's craft of the wet country of Madhubani: baskets, lidded boxes, masks and deity figures in dyed sikki grass.
Mithila makhana
The fox nut Bihar grows for almost all of India, one of Mithila's three emblems with paan and fish; GI-registered in 2022.
Seeds gathered by hand from the bottom of ponds, then roasted and popped. Eaten roasted, or as makhana kheer.
Sama Chakeva
Mithila's festival of brothers and sisters, with clay birds, songs at night and the winter birds arriving.
After Chhath, sisters shape and paint clay figures of Sama and Chakeva, sing together each night, and on Kartik Purnima the figures are given to the river.
The Darbhanga Raj museums
Two free museums of the Darbhanga Raj, one of India's richest estates, in the city it built.
The Chandradhari Museum (1957) by Mansarovar lake and the Maharajadhiraj Lakshmishwar Singh Museum (1977) near the station, with the Raj's collections.
Dahi chura on Makar Sankranti
The Makar Sankranti breakfast across Bihar: flattened rice, curd and jaggery, with tilkut after.
Chura, dahi and gur eaten together on the morning of Sankranti, with tilkut.
Yatras through Darbhanga
- Shakti Yatra: Devi shrines on hills and in villages, including the oldest working temple in India
- Ramayan Yatra: Sita's Mithila, and the road Ram took through it
Experiences
- Learn Madhubani painting: A wall painting done by women in Mithila for centuries, now a hundred-crore trade
Tirtham can arrange here
A guide who knows the places, a car with a driver we have met, and a stay nearby. Tell us your dates and we call to confirm.
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