Janaka, the Philosopher-King of Mithilā

Janaka was the king of Mithilā in the kingdom of Videha. He was a philosopher-king, a rājarshi (royal seer). He was the father of Sītā. He set the condition for her svayaṃvara (the choosing of a husband): only the man who could lift and string the huge bow of Bhagavān Śiva, which the Videha royal house kept in trust, would win her.

Janaka was known for both wisdom and piety. He held great yajñas (fire rituals). During one such ritual ploughing, Sītā appeared from the earth as his wonderful daughter. In the Mahābhārata he is also shown as a student of many great ācāryas, as a teacher of Śuka Maharshi, and as a king tested by the woman sannyāsinī Sulabhā.

Lineage and identity

Janaka was the king of Mithilā in Videha. All through Āryāvarta he was famed as a rājarshi, one who joined royal rule with spiritual wisdom and the performance of yajña.

The Videha royal house kept the great bow of Śiva, called Pinākī. Bhagavān Śiva himself gave it to the Videha kings as a sacred trust. The bow was so huge and so full of divine energy that no ordinary king had ever been able even to lift it. Janaka made this the condition for the svayaṃvara of his daughter Sītā.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 5, tells this.

Sītā’s birth

Sītā was not born from a human womb. Janaka was ploughing the ritual field to prepare for a great yajña. A girl child appeared from a furrow (sītā) of the earth. So she was named Sītā, “daughter of the furrow”. She is also called Bhūmijā (“born of the earth”) and Jānakī (daughter of Janaka).

Janaka received her with wonder and joy and brought her up as his beloved daughter. Her birth from the earth shows her as a form of Bhūdevī, the devī of the Earth, in human form. She was born to be the consort of Bhagavān Rāma.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 5, tells this.

The svayaṃvara

When Sītā came of age, Janaka set the condition. Only the man who could lift, string and break the great bow of Śiva would win her hand. Kings and princes came to Mithilā from all over the world to test their strength. None could even move the bow.

Then Viśvāmitra brought the young Rāma and Lakshmaṇa to Janaka’s court. Janaka welcomed them and showed them the bow. Rāma lifted it with what looked like no effort, strung it, and drew it so strongly that it snapped in two with a thunderous crack that shook the earth. Janaka was full of joy. By this act Rāma showed his divine nature, his own primal strength as Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. Janaka gave Sītā to Rāma.

Then Rāma’s father Daśaratha and the rest of the family came to Mithilā, and all the marriages were arranged:

Sītā to Rāma.
Māṇḍavī, daughter of Janaka’s brother Kuśadhvaja, to Bharata.
Ūrmilā to Lakshmaṇa.
Śrutakīrti, also Kuśadhvaja’s daughter, to Śatrughna.

All four marriages were held with joy and splendour. Janaka honoured his new sons-in-law and their fathers with the greatest respect before they left for Ayodhyā.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 5, tells this.

The Bhāgavata account: the first Janaka and the Mithilā dynasty

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 13, traces the origin of the Janaka dynasty and the founding of Mithilā. It starts from the unusual birth of the very first Janaka, the father of the whole Videha royal line.

Nimi Mahārāja and the birth of the first Janaka

Nimi Mahārāja, son of Ikshvāku, had given up his body after the mutual curse between him and Vasishṭha. When Nimi’s satra-yāga (long yajña) was finished, the ṛtvijes (priests) churned the preserved body of the departed king. This is called mathana. A son was born from the churning. He received three names, each matching the manner of his birth:

Janaka: born in the lineage of the bodiless (videha) Nimi, and so one who “generates” without an ordinary father.
Vaideha: born of the bodiless one.
Mithila: born of the mathana (the churning).

This son was the first Janaka and is also called Mithila. He founded the city of Mithilā and named it after himself. The whole Videha dynasty ruled from Mithilā. It became the foremost centre of royal ātmajñāna (knowledge of the self) in the ancient world.

The Mithilā royal succession

The Bhāgavata lists the kings of Mithilā after the first Janaka: Udāvasu, Nandivardhana, Suketu, Devarāta, Bṛhadratha, Mahāvīrya, Sudṛti, Dhṛshṭaketu, Haryaśva, Maru, Pratīpaka, Kṛtiratha, Devamīḍha, Viśruta, Mahādhṛti, Kṛtirāta, Mahāromu, Svarṇaromu, Hrasvaromu, and last Sīradhvaja.

Sīradhvaja got his name from the plough, which carried his fame. He was ploughing the earth to prepare for a great yāga when Sītādevī appeared from the furrow. This Sīradhvaja Janaka is the father of Sītādevī in the Agni Mahā Purāṇa account above.

Keśidhvaja and Khāṇḍikya

Among Sīradhvaja’s successors was his son Kṛtadhvaja, who was known for his deep devotion to ātmajñāna. Kṛtadhvaja’s son Keśidhvaja was a supreme ātmajñānī (knower of the self). He had a well-known exchange with Khāṇḍikya, a son of a side branch of the Mithilā family, who had chosen the path of karma (action) over jñāna (knowledge).

Keśidhvaja and Khāṇḍikya stand for the two paths, jñāna-nishṭhā and karma-nishṭhā. Both are honoured in the Mithilā line. The whole Mithilā dynasty had a rare quality. Even as householders and rulers, they were free from rāga (attachment) and dvesha (hatred), through the grace of ṛshis such as Yājñavalkya.

Janaka in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa: the Bṛhad-upākhyāna

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa shows Janaka as the model philosopher-king. He receives the highest Sāṃkhya teaching from Pañcaśikha Maharshi, also called Kāpileya. Nārada asked for ever deeper teaching on moksha. In answer, Sānandana Maharshi tells the account of Janaka’s meeting with Pañcaśikha. It is called the Bṛhad-upākhyāna and runs over eight chapters.

Janaka is shown as always thinking about the dharmas of the next world and always examining questions of karma-phala (the fruit of action), rebirth and liberation. His court had many ācāryas and debaters, but Janaka himself was not confused. His own conviction about the reality of the jīva (the living being) and about liberation was firm. When Pañcaśikha arrived, Janaka saw his great stature at once. He left all his other ācāryas and went himself to receive the Sāṃkhya teaching on moksha.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapters 45–52, tells this.

Janaka as teacher: the Śuka-Janaka dialogue

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa also shows Janaka as a teacher. Śuka Maharshi had studied fully under Bṛhaspati and under his father Vyāsa, yet found no peace of mind. Vyāsa sent Śuka to Janaka and called Janaka the supreme knower of moksha-dharma.

The dialogue between Śuka and Janaka covers these points:

the four āśrama duties of a brāhmaṇa;
the part of the guru in passing on jñāna;
moksha as something that can be reached in any āśrama by one whose ātmā is pure;
the marks of one who has reached brahmatva.

Janaka also quotes the gāthās (wise sayings) of Yayāti Mahārāja on the nature of the freed self.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapters 59–60, tells this.

Janaka in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa: Bāla Kāṇḍa

The Śiva-dhanus test

The Bāla Kāṇḍa shows Janaka as a man of great dignity and fatherly love. He had set the condition for Sītā’s marriage. Only the man who could string the Śiva-dhanus, the huge divine bow of Śiva given in trust to the Vaideha kings, would win Sītā. Many great kings and warriors tried and failed. Some were carried away unconscious. Janaka had nearly lost hope when Viśvāmitra came with Rāma. Janaka showed them the bow. Rāma lifted and strung it, and drew it with such force that it snapped in two with a sound like thunder. Janaka’s joy was complete.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 66–67, tells this.

Janaka recites the Vaideha lineage

At the marriage ceremony, Janaka told the whole Vaideha lineage to the assembly. It starts from Nimi, son of Ikshvāku, who separated from the Ayodhyā branch of the Solar dynasty. It goes on through Mithi, the founder of Mithilā, and the long line of Janaka kings: Udāvasu, Nandivardhana, Suketu, Devarāta, Bṛhadratha, Mahāvīrya, Sudṛti, Dhṛshṭaketu, Haryaśva, Maru, Pratīpaka, Kṛtiratha, Devamīḍha, Viśruta, Mahādhṛti, Kṛtirāta, Mahāromu, Svarṇaromu and Hrasvaromu. It comes down to the present Janaka, Sīradhvaja, and his brother Kuśadhvaja.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 71, tells this.

The four weddings

Janaka arranged for all four sons of Daśaratha to be married on the same occasion. They married his own two daughters, Sītā and Ūrmilā, and Kuśadhvaja’s two daughters, Māṇḍavī and Śrutakīrti. The four weddings were held at the same time under Vasishṭha’s direction, with full Vedic rites. They made a lasting bond between the houses of Videha and Ayodhyā.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 73, tells this.

Janaka in the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa: Bāla Kāṇḍa

Janaka receives the guests

News came to Janaka that Viśvāmitra had arrived with two shining young princes. He went himself with his whole court to welcome them. His mind was always turned away from rāga and dvesha. When he saw Rāma and Lakshmaṇa, he became “Videha” (bodiless, beside himself) in a second sense, so lost in wonder at their divine beauty. He asked Viśvāmitra, hardly hiding his awe, whether these were sons of brāhmaṇas or of kshatriyas, or whether the Parabrahman itself had come down in their form. Viśvāmitra smiled and told him they were Daśaratha’s sons, who had come to guard the yajña.

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Mithilā Nagara Darśanamu, tells this.

The dhanuryajña and the breaking of the bow

Janaka’s dhanuryajña (the bow ritual) drew kings from all over the earth. All of them failed to lift the Śiva-dhanus. In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Janaka laments that perhaps no worthy hero for Sītā exists. Lakshmaṇa hears this and makes a fiery vow that Rāma can do what all the kings of the earth cannot. Viśvāmitra then tells Rāma to rise.

Rāma walks forward with the ease of a lion. He lifts the bow as easily as one lifts a garland, strings it in one smooth motion, and breaks it in the same instant. The sound rings through the three worlds and the sky above. The devas shower flowers, and glad sounds fill the sky. Sītā comes forward and garlands Rāma with the jayamāla (garland of victory). Janaka’s joy is full and overflowing, for at last the worthy hero for his daughter has appeared.

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Dhanus Bhaṅga, tells this.

The four weddings

After the Paraśurāma episode, a messenger was sent to Ayodhyā with the news. Daśaratha came with a grand wedding procession (barāt) and all the joy of Ayodhyā. Brahmā himself fixed the wedding time as the month of Mārgaśīrsha, at godhūli-velā (cow-dust time, dusk).

Janaka’s four daughters were married at the same time to the four sons of Daśaratha, under Vasishṭha’s direction. They were his own daughters Sītā and Ūrmilā, and the daughters of his brother Kuśaketu, Māṇḍavī and Śrutakīrti. Janaka honoured Daśaratha and his sons with grand gifts and said farewell with a full heart. Viśvāmitra left for the Himālaya after he had seen the weddings.

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Vivāha Mahotsava, tells this.

Janaka in the Mahābhārata Mokshadharma Parva: student of the great ācāryas

The Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata, in its Mokshadharma Parva (Chapters 290–326), shows Janaka as one of the leading royal students of his time. He learns from a series of great ācāryas: Parāśara, Vasishṭha (with Karāla-Janaka), Yājñavalkya and Pañcaśikha. He also appears as the examiner who confirms the realisation of Śuka Maharshi, and as the king who is tested by the woman sannyāsinī Sulabhā. He is the model of the jñānī (knowing) king.

Parāśara-Gītā: student of Parāśara (Chapters 290–298)

In nine chapters, Parāśara Maharshi teaches Janaka a full course in dharma and philosophy:

the path of each varṇa, including the śūdra’s service (sevā) as true dharma;
the ethics of ruling: a king who takes away and gives to others is not a giver but a thief;
the householder’s cycle of attachment, which leads to vairāgya (detachment);
the ethics of war, and who may and may not be killed in battle;
the three guṇas in the buddhi (intellect);
the mano-maya ratha, the chariot of the mind: the body is the chariot, the senses are the horses and the buddhi is the charioteer;
karma-vipāka (the ripening of action) without attachment.

Janaka receives this teaching with sincere inquiry (jijñāsā). The dialogue is a model of the exchange between guru and śishya (student).

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 290–298, tells this.

Vasishṭha, Karāla-Janaka and Janaka: the twenty-four, the twenty-fifth and the twenty-sixth (Chapters 302–308)

In seven chapters, the great ṛshi Vasishṭha teaches the gathered Janaka kings, among them Karāla-Janaka, the difference between kshara and akshara:

The twenty-four tattvas (principles) of Sāṃkhya are kshara: perishable and changing.
The twenty-fifth, the purusha-ātmā, is akshara in a relative sense: the imperishable witness.
The twenty-sixth, the paramātmā, is the supreme akshara, beyond both the field and the witness.

Three states of the seeker match these three levels:

kshara-stha: fully one with the twenty-four.
akshara-stha: resting as the twenty-fifth, the witness.
uttama-paramātma-stha: realised in the one non-dual twenty-sixth.

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 302–308, tells this.

Yājñavalkya and Janaka: cosmic time and nishkala Brahman (Chapters 310–318)

In nine chapters, Yājñavalkya teaches Janaka about:

cosmic time: one kalpa is one day of Brahmā, and the life of the avyakta (the unmanifest) is one Brahmā-century;
the rise of the Hiraṇmaya-aṇḍa (the golden cosmic egg) at each creation;
the analysis of each tattva as adhyātma, adhibhūta and adhidaivata;
the prakṛti-purusha viveka (the discernment between prakṛti and purusha);
last, the nature of nishkala Brahman, which is without parts and undivided: the supreme akshara, beyond all twenty-four tattvas.

Yājñavalkya names this teaching as the crown of what Bhagavān Sūrya gave him when he bestowed the Śukla Yajurveda. Janaka receives it as the highest teaching of this whole series of dialogues.

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 310–318, tells this.

Pañcaśikha and Janaka: the certainty of old age and death (Chapter 319)

The Sāṃkhya ṛshi Pañcaśikha teaches Janaka that old age and death cannot be avoided. He uses the picture of kāla-pravāha, the relentless current of time. No bond, gain or state in the world can stop the flow of time. Every bond in saṃsāra is temporary: spouses, children and parents are fellow travellers on a road that will part them. The only response that does not bind is sarvatra-sama-darśana, equal vision everywhere, which means seeing Brahman equally in all situations. This teaching is the last preparation for the vairāgya toward which all these dialogues lead Janaka.

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 319, tells this.

Sulabhā and Janaka: Janaka is tested (Chapter 320)

Here Janaka is not the student but the one who is examined. The woman sannyāsinī Sulabhā carries the triple staff (tridaṇḍa) and has yoga-siddhi (yogic power). She enters Janaka’s court. By cetaḥpraveśa (entering another’s mind by yoga) she enters Janaka’s consciousness directly. She wants to test how deep his jñāna is, and whether his claim to be a jīvanmukta (one freed while living) while still on the throne is true.

Janaka objects strongly. He raises four challenges:

it is improper for a woman of unknown lineage to enter a man’s body;
the gotra-pravara (family lines) are mixed;
the rules of the āśramas are broken;
the act is impure.

Sulabhā answers each one in turn:

the ātmā has no lineage, gotra or gender;
the body is only a passing arrangement of the five elements and has no purity of its own;
her cetaḥpraveśa was a fair test of the realisation he claimed;
jīvanmukti cannot go together with the defensiveness Janaka had shown.

She ends her teaching with the kshetra-kshetrajña distinction, the key idea of Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad-Gītā: the knower of the field is different from the field itself. No object of the field, whether lineage, gender or āśrama, defines the identity of the ātmā.

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 320, tells this.

Śuka and Janaka: Janaka confirms the realisation (Chapter 326)

The highest role of Janaka in the Mokshadharma Parva is to examine and confirm the realisation of Śuka Maharshi. Vyāsa had used up his means of bringing Śuka’s restless mind to peace through teaching. So he sent Śuka to Janaka, the one king whose lived jñāna could confirm and steady what the young ṛshi had already received.

Śuka’s journey to Mithilā was itself a test of renunciation. The elements honoured him, divine women did not disturb him, and flowers rained from the sky. At Janaka’s court Śuka was made to wait seven full days. The king refused to receive him at once, as a deliberate trial of the student’s calm. Śuka sat there, undisturbed.

At last Janaka received him with the formal honours due to a brahmarshi. Śuka asked three questions:

What is this world?
From where does the jīva come?
Where does it go?

Janaka’s answers followed the four āśramas in order: brahmacārya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. Each one is a step in the gradual release of attachment, a station on the way from saṃsāra to moksha. Janaka used the picture of a bird that leaves the nest when it is grown. He declared that Śuka had already gone beyond the need for any āśrama, and that he was free. This word from the foremost jñānī king of the age completed Śuka’s liberation.

The Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 326, tells this.

Janaka in the Aśvamedhika Parva

Named among the ancient rājarshis (Chapter 91)

A Janaka Mahārāja is named in the teaching on hiṃsā (harm) and dharma in the Aśvamedhika Parva. He is listed among the ancient rājarshis and munis who reached parama-siddhi (the highest perfection) through tapas and truthful giving (dāna). He is listed with Viśvāmitra, Asita, Kakshasena, Ārshisheṇa and Sindhudvīpa.

The Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 91, tells this.

The Brāhmaṇa-Janaka dialogue on mamatā (Chapter 32)

The Anugītā Parva of the Aśvamedhika Parva keeps a further itihāsa. It is told within the teaching cycle of the brāhmaṇa and the brāhmaṇī (the Brahmagītā). In it, Janaka banishes a brāhmaṇa for a wrong act. The brāhmaṇa asks him to say exactly where the boundary of “his” kingdom lies.

The question throws Janaka for a short time into moha (confusion). He comes out of it with the realisation that nothing on earth, not even his ancestral Mithilā, can truly be called “mine”. By the same reasoning, the whole earth is equally his and equally everyone else’s.

The brāhmaṇa then reveals himself as Dharmadevatā, who had come only to test the king. He declares Janaka the one destined to spread brahmavidyā (the knowledge of Brahman). Here Janaka settles the puzzle of mamatā (the sense of “mine”) through his own realisation, not through a teacher’s instruction.

The Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 32, tells this.

Sources

Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 5
Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 13
Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapters 45–52, 59–60
Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 64
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 66–73
Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa: Mithilā Nagara Darśanamu; Dhanus Bhaṅga; Vivāha Mahotsava
Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 290–326
Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 32, 91
Bhagavad-Gītā, Chapter 13