Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s4.7

c9.s4.7

That the great Janaka was later than the Pārikshitas admits of no doubt. We shall show later on that he was a contemporary probably of Nichakshu (if Purāṇic tradition is to be accepted), and certainly of Ushasta or Ushasti Chākrāyaṇa during whose time disaster befell the Kurus. In Janaka's time we find the notable achievements, as well as the mysterious fate, of the Pārikshitas, still fresh in the memory of the people and discussed as a subject of general curiosity in the royal court of Mithilā. In the *Bṛihad-āraṇyaka Upanishad* Bhujyu Lāhyāyani tests Yājñavalkya, the ornament of the court of Janaka, with a question, the solution of which the former is said to have previously obtained from a being of superhuman power through the medium of a Madra girl :