{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp097.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp097.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp097.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nKings of Mithil\u00e1. Legend of Nimi, the son of Ikshw\u00e1ku. Birth of Janaka. Sacrifice of S\u00edradhwaja. Origin of S\u00edt\u00e1. Descendants of Ku\u015badhwaja. Kriti the last of the Maithila princes.\nTHE son of Ikshw\u00e1ku, who was named Nimi 1, instituted a sacrifice that was to endure for a thousand years, and applied to Va\u015bisht\u0301ha to offer the oblations. Va\u015bisht\u0301ha in answer said, that he had been preengaged by Indra for five hundred years, but that if the R\u00e1j\u00e1, would wait for some time, he would come and officiate as superintending priest. The king made no answer, and Va\u015bisht\u0301ha went away, supposing that he had assented. When the sage had completed the performance of the ceremonies he had conducted for Indra, he returned with all speed to Nimi, purposing to render him the like office. When he arrived, however, and found that Nimi had retained Gautama and other priests to minister at his sacrifice, he was much displeased, and pronounced upon the king, who was then asleep, a curse to this effect, that since he had not intimated his intention, but transferred to Gautama the duty he had first entrusted to himself, Va\u015bisht\u0301ha, Nimi should thenceforth cease to exist in a corporeal form. When Nimi woke, and knew what had happened, he in return denounced as an imprecation upon his unjust preceptor, that he also should lose his bodily existence, as the punishment of uttering a curse upon him without previously communicating with him. Nimi then abandoned his bodily condition. The spirit of Va\u015bisht\u0301ha also leaving his body, was united with the spirits of Mitra and Varu\u0144a for a season, until, through their passion for the nymph Urva\u015b\u00ed, the sage was born again in a different shape. The corpse of Nimi was preserved from decay by being embalmed with fragrant oils and resins, and it remained as entire as if it were immortal 2. When the sacrifice\nwas concluded, the priests applied to the gods, who had come to receive their portions, that they would confer a blessing upon the author of the sacrifice. The gods were willing to restore him to bodily life, but Nimi declined its acceptance, saying, \"O deities, who are the alleviators of all worldly suffering, there is not in the world a deeper cause of distress than the separation of soul and body: it is therefore my wish to dwell in the eyes of all beings, but never more to resume a corporeal shape!\" To this desire the gods assented, and Nimi was placed by them in the eyes of all living creatures; in consequence of which their eyelids are ever opening and shutting.\nAs Nimi left no successor, the Munis, apprehensive of the consequences of the earth being without a ruler, agitated the body of the prince, and produced from it a prince who was called Janaka, from being born without a progenitor. In consequence of his father being without a body (videha), he was termed also Vaideha, 'the son of the bodiless;' and the further received the name of Mithi, from having been produced by agitation (mathana) 3. The son of Janaka was Ud\u00e1vasu;\nhis son was Nandivarddhana; his son was Suketu; his son was Devar\u00e1ta; his son was Vrihaduktha; his son was Mah\u00e1v\u00edrya; his son was Satyadhriti; his son was Dhrisht\u0301aketu; his son was Haryya\u015bwa; his son was Maru; his son was Pratibandhaka; his son was Kritaratha; his son was Krita; his son was Vibudha; his son was Mah\u00e1dhriti; his son was Kritir\u00e1ta; his son was Mah\u00e1roman; his son was Suvar\u0144aroman; his son was Hraswaroman; his son was S\u00edradhwaja.\nS\u00edradhwaja ploughing the ground, to prepare it for a sacrifice which he instituted in order to obtain progeny, there sprang up in the furrow a damsel, who became his daughter S\u00edt\u00e1 4. The brother of S\u00edradhwaja was Ku\u015badhwaja, who was king of K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed 5; he had a son also, named Bh\u00e1numat 6. The son of Bh\u00e1numat was Satadyumna; his son was \u015auchi; his son was \u00darjjav\u00e1ha; his son was \u015aatyadhwaja; his son was Kuni 7; his son was Anjana; his son was Ritujit; his son was Arisht\u0301anemi 8; his son was \u015arut\u00e1yus; his son was Sup\u00e1r\u015bwa; his son was Sanjaya 9; his son was Kshem\u00e1ri 10; his son was Anenas 11; his son was M\u00ednaratha 12; his son was Satyaratha; his son was S\u00e1tyarathi 13; his son was Upagu 14; his son was \u015aruta 15; his son was S\u00e1swata 16; his son was Sudhanwan; his son was Subh\u00e1sa; his son was Su\u015bruta 17; his son was Jaya; his son was Vijaya; his son was Rita; his son was Sunaya 18; his son was V\u00edtahavya;\nhis son was Dhriti; his son was Bahul\u00e1\u015bwa; his son was Kriti, with whom terminated the family of Janaka. These are the kings of Mithil\u00e1, who for the most part will be 19 proficient in spiritual knowledge 20.\n388:1 None of the authorities, except the V\u00e1yu and Bh\u00e1gavata, contain the series of kings noticed in this chapter.\n388:2 This shews that the Hindus were not unacquainted with the Egyptian art of embalming dead bodies. In the K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed Kha\u0144d\u0301a, s. 30, an account is given of a Brahman who carries his mother's bones, p. 389 or rather her corpse, from Setuhandha or R\u00e1me\u015bwara to K\u00e1\u015b\u00ed. For this purpose he first washes it with the five excretions of a cow, and the five pure fluids, or milk, curds, ghee, honey, and sugar. He then embalms it with Yakshakarddama, a composition of Agallochum, camphor, musk, saffron, sandal, and a resin called Kakkola; and envelopes it severally with Netra vastra, flowered muslin; Pat\u0301t\u0301amvara, silk; Surasa vastra, coarse cotton; M\u00e1njisht\u0301ha, cloth dyed with madder; and Nepala Kambala, nepal blanketing. He then covers it with pure clay, and puts the whole into a coffin of copper, T\u00e1mra samput\u0301a. These practices are not only unknown, but would be thought impure in the present day.\n389:3 These legends are intended to explain, and were probably suggested by, the terms Vaideha and Mithil\u00e1, applied to the country upon the Gandak and Kai rivers, the modern Tirhut. The R\u00e1m\u00e1ya\u0144a places a prince named Mithi between Nimi and Janaka, whence comes the name Mithil\u00e1. In other respects the list of kings of Mithil\u00e1 agrees, except in a few names. Janaka the successor of Nimi is different from Janaka who is celebrated as the father of S\u00edta. One of them, which, does not appear, is also renowned as a philosopher, and patron of philosophical teachers. Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, Moksha Dharma. According to the V\u00e1yu P., Nimi founded a city called Jayantapur, near the \u00c1\u015brama of Gautama. The remains of a city called Janakpur, on the northern skirts of the district, are supposed to indicate the site of a city founded by one of the princes so named.\n390:4 This identifies S\u00edradhwaja with the second Janaka, the father-in-law of R\u00e1ma. The story of S\u00edt\u00e1's birth, or rather discovery, is narrated in the Ar\u00e1nya Kha\u0144d\u0301a of the R\u00e1m\u00e1ya\u0144a, the Vana Parva of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, and in the V\u00e1yu, Brahma Vaivartta, K\u00e1lik\u00e1, and other Pur\u00e1\u0144as.\n390:5 The R\u00e1m\u00e1ya\u0144a says, 'of Sanka\u015bya,' which is no doubt the correct reading. Fa Hian found the kingdom of Sang-kia-shi in the Doab, about Mainpuri. Account of the Foe-ku\u00eb-ki. The Bh\u00e1gavata makes Ku\u015badhwaja the son of S\u00edradwaja.\n390:6 The Bh\u00e1gavata differs from our authority here considerably, by inserting several princes between K\u00fasadhwaja and Bh\u00e1numat; or, Dharmadhwaja, who has two sons, Kritadhwaja and Kh\u00e1\u0144d\u0301ikya; the former is the father of Ke\u015bidhwaja, the latter of Bh\u00e1numat. See the last book of the Vish\u0144u.\n390:7 \u015aakuni, and the last of the series, according to the V\u00e1yu,\n390:8 Between this prince and \u015auchi the series of the Bh\u00e1gavata is Sanadhwaja, Urddhwaketu, Aja, Purujit. The following variations are from the same authority.\n390:9 Chitraratha.\n390:10 Kshemadh\u00ed.\n390:11 Omitted.\n390:12 Samaratha.\n390:13 Omitted.\n390:14 Upaguru.\n390:15 Upagupta.\n390:16 Vaswananta.\n390:17 Yuyudh\u00e1na, Subh\u00e1sha\u0144a, \u015aruta.\n390:18 \u015aunaka.\n391:19 ### is the reading of all the copies; but why the future verb, 'will be,' is used does not appear.\n391:20 Descendants of two of the other sons of the Manu are noticed in the Bh\u00e1gavata; from Nriga, it is said, proceeded Sumati, Bh\u00fatajyotish, Vasu, Prat\u00edka, Oghavat, and his sister Oghavat\u00ed, married to Sudar\u015bana. The Linga gives three sons to Nriga, Vrisha, Dhrisht\u0301aka, and Ra\u0144adhrisht\u0301a, and alludes to a legend of his having been changed to a lizard by the curse of a Brahman. Narishyanta's descendants were Chitrasena, Daksha, Madhwat, P\u00farva, Indrasena, V\u00edtihotra, Satya\u015brava, Uru\u015bravas, Devadatta, Agnive\u015bya, also called J\u00e1tukar\u0144a, a form of Agni, and progenitor of the \u00c1gnive\u015bya Brahmans. In the Br\u00e1hma P. and Hari V. the sons of Narishyat, whom the commentator on the latter considers as the same with Narishyanta, are termed Sacas, Sac\u00e6 or Scythians; whilst, again, it is said that the son of Narishyanta was Dama, or, as differently read, Yams. As this latter affiliation is stated in the authorities, it would appear as if this Narishyanta was one of the sons of the Manu; but this is only a proof of the carelessness of the compilation, for in the Vish\u0144u, V\u00e1yu, and M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya Pur\u00e1\u0144as, Narishyanta, the father of Dama, is the son of Marutta, the fourteenth of the posterity of Disht\u0301a or Nedisht\u0301a.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter V","type":"page"}