Darbhanga

Darbhanga was the centre of a powerful landed house in Mithila, the region of rivers and cultivated plains north of the Ganges. Mithila was also renowned for Sanskrit learning, and earlier Oinwara rulers had supported scholars and poets at their court. The Khandwala family later built its authority over much of Tirhut within the Mughal province of Bihar.

Tradition connects the foundation of the Darbhanga house with Mahesh Thakur, a learned Brahmin whom Akbar appointed to authority in Mithila in the sixteenth century. From this beginning the family gradually accumulated hereditary rights over extensive lands. Its rulers became prominent intermediaries between imperial revenue administration and the cultivators and local landholders of the region, while the intellectual traditions of Mithila continued to shape their court.