[6] Darbhanga was the seat of the erstwhile Khandwala zamidaar dynasty under the Mughals and British India.

Musical, folk art, and literary traditions in Maithili, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Hindi have passed down generations in Darbhanga and constitute the city's strong cultural background.

[11] The city was the capital of the Darbhanga Raj, an estate established in the 16th century, containing the Anandbagh Palace.

A major rail and road junction, Darbhanga trades in agricultural produce, mangoes, and fish.

Darbhanga is situated on a vast alluvial plain, with low-lying areas containing marshes and lakes.

[12] Under the British Raj, Darbhanga was a part of Sarkar Tirhut until 1875, when it was constituted into a separate district.

Being located in Mithilanchal, Darbhanga district has a vast fertile alluvial plain devoid of any hills.

The 2011 Census of India recorded Darbhanga as an Urban agglomeration with a population of 296,039 while the surrounding district has 3 million people.

There are daily and weekly trains available for New Delhi, Patna, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Howrah, Amritsar, Pune and other major cities.

After efforts taken by the MP of Darbhanga, Gopal Jee Thakur,[23][24] and the then Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri.

The East-West Corridor expressway, which connects Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam, passes through Darbhanga.

Notable educational institutions include: Darbhanga has various tourist attractions and is among the oldest cities of Bihar.