Just About Everything

We reached Darbhanga around 8.30pm. We were tired but happy to have accomplished so much in such a short time! Our purpose of stopping over at Darbhanga was mainly because we wanted to visit one of the oldest cities of Bihar. Darbhanga has so much of history that it definitely warrants a visit. The other reason was to visit Madhumbani, I am a huge fan of Madhubani paintings and I wanted to visit the source of these wonderful paintings. Some historic facts about Darbhanga. I had found the name a bit weird and could not resist finding out about the origin of the name before my visit: This is what I found from Wikipedia (the -paragraph in italics has been taken for Wikipedia) The name Darbhanga is the mutated form of "Dwarbanga". That is, it is the combination of words "Dwar"(Gate) and "Banga" (Bengal) meaning "Gateway of Bengal". If one notices Bengali and Maithili, he will find many a phonetic similarities particularly in the main verbs...

Aerial view of Nalanda University I am continuing with the travel posts on my Bihar trip . From Rajgir we set off for Nalanda, unfortunately we did not have much time because we had to reach Darbhanga the same day and it was already 1pm and we still had long distances to cover! This left us with only a couple of hours of daylight in Nalanda, I regret not having more time. Nalanda does require more time, and I missed the museum:( Nalanda is known as one of the greatest universities of the ancient world, it was founded by Kumaragupta around 413-455 AD, and Kingh Harshavardhana of Kannauj (from 606-647 AD).The Pala kings continued to patronage this institution, but Nalanda started declining around 1200 AD when it was invaded by Bakhtiyar Khilji. Entrance to Nalanda Brick walls inside the ancient university Students came from distant places and countries to study in Nalanda. Some of the well- known people who visited Nalanada are, Nagarjuna, Aryaveda, Vas...

View of the Mahabodhi temple complex In continuation with my Bihar trip , after reaching our hotel at around 10.30 pm, a hot bath and hot and delicious stuffed parathas for dinner revived us completely. We were eager to visit the Mahabodhi temple, and the other beautiful Buddhist temples in Bodh Gaya.We checked out of the hotel at around 7.30 am in morning. Our packed agenda did not allow for much relaxation. There was so much to see and just 24 little hours! We wanted to make the most of every precious hour. Our plan was to tour Bodh Gaya, then Gaya, followed by Rajgir and Nalanda, all in one day! A bit about the history of Mahabodhi temple : In the 6th century, Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment at this spot. Emperor Ashoka set up a throne of sandstone to represent the spot. A sandstone railing was constructed around it in the 3rd century BC.The present Mahabodhi temple was constructed in 6th century AD. There have been several restorations after that. There has...