Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s4.59

c9.s4.59

As the entire dynasty of Maithila monarchs was called *Janaka-vaṁśa*, *Vaṁśo Janakānāṁ mahātmanām*, the family of the high-souled Janakas, in post-Vedic literature, and there were several kings bearing the name of Janaka, it is very difficult to identify any of these with the great Janaka of the Vedic texts, the contemporary of Āruṇi and Yājñavalkya. But there is one fact which seems to favour his identification with Sīradhvaja of the Purāṇic list, *i. e.*, the father of Sītā. The father of the heroine of the *Rāmāyaṇa* is a younger contemporary of Aśvapati, king of the Kekayas (maternal grandfather of Bharata¹), Janaka of the Vedic texts is also a contemporary of Aśvapati, prince of the Kekayas, as Uddālaka Āruṇi and Buḍila Āśvatarāśvi frequented the courts of both these princes.² But as the name Aśvapati is also apparently given to Bharata’s maternal uncle,³ it seems that it was possibly not a personal name but a secondary epithet or a family designation like 'Janaka.'⁴ In that case it is impossible to say how far the identification of the Vedic Janaka with the father of Sītā is correct. The identification seems, however, to have been accepted by Bhavabhūti. Referring to the father of the heroine, the poet says in the *Mahāvīra-charita*⁵ :—