Janakpur

City and sacred site (tirtha) in the
western part of Nepal, seven miles
north of the border with the Indian state
of Bihar. Janakpur is said to be the
capital of King Janaka, a noted sage and
the foster father of the goddess Sita
in the Ramayana, the earlier of the
two great Hindu epics. According to tradition, Janaka’s capital was destroyed
during the war described in the
Mahabharata—the other great Hindu
epic—and disappeared without a
trace. The present site of Janakpur
dates from the early eighteenth century
and is said to have been discovered by
two Vaishnava devotees (bhakta),
Chaturbhuj Giri and Sur Kishor.
Chaturbhuj Giri had a vision of the god
Rama in a dream and was directed to
dig beneath a banyan tree. When he did,
he found four images of Vishnu, each in
a differing divine manifestation. Sur
Kishor was a great devotee of Sita, and
through her agency discovered the spot
as well. Other ascetics began to come to
this site, which is still an important stop
on the annual pilgrimage cycle of the
Ramanandi ascetics. The ascetics were
followed by shepherds and merchants,
and the town of Janakpur gradually grew
up from there. For extensive treatment
of this site and the veracity of these
stories, see Richard Burghart, “The
History of Janakpur,” in Kailash, Vol. 6,
No. 4, 1978.