Srimad Bhagavatam

Canto 9: Liberation
Chapter 13: The Dynasty of Maharaja Nimi

Text 0: Chapter Summary
Text* 1: ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« said: After beginning sacrifices, MahÄrÄja Nimi, the son of Iká¹£vÄku, requested the great sage Vasiṣṭha to take the post of chief priest. At that time, Vasiṣṭha replied, “My dear MahÄrÄja Nimi, I have already accepted the same post in a sacrifice begun by Lord Indra.â€
Text* 2: “I shall return here after finishing the yajña for Indra. Kindly wait for me until then.†MahÄrÄja Nimi remained silent, and Vasiṣṭha began to perform the sacrifice for Lord Indra.
Text 3: MahÄrÄja Nimi, being a self-realized soul, considered that this life is flickering. Therefore, instead of waiting long for Vasiṣṭha, he began performing the sacrifice with other priests.
Text* 4: After completing the sacrificial performance for King Indra, the spiritual master Vasiṣṭha returned and found that his disciple MahÄrÄja Nimi had disobeyed his instructions. Thus Vasiṣṭha cursed him, saying, “May the material body of Nimi, who considers himself learned, immediately fall.â€
Text 5: For unnecessarily cursing him when he had committed no offense, MahÄrÄja Nimi countercursed his spiritual master. “For the sake of getting contributions from the King of heaven,†he said, “you have lost your religious intelligence. Therefore I pronounce this curse: your body also will fall.â€
Text 6: After saying this, MahÄrÄja Nimi, who was expert in the science of spiritual knowledge, gave up his body. Vasiṣṭha, the great-grandfather, gave up his body also, but through the semen discharged by Mitra and Varuṇa when they saw Urvaśī, he was born again.
Text* 7: During the performance of the yajña, the body relinquished by MahÄrÄja Nimi was preserved in fragrant substances, and at the end of the Satra-yÄga the great saints and brÄhmaṇas made the following request to all the demigods assembled there.
Text 8: “If you are satisfied with this sacrifice and if you are actually able to do so, kindly bring MahÄrÄja Nimi back to life in this body.†The demigods said yes to this request by the sages, but MahÄrÄja Nimi said, “Please do not imprison me again in a material body.â€
Text 9: MahÄrÄja Nimi continued: MÄyÄvÄdÄ«s generally want freedom from accepting a material body because they fear having to give it up again. But devotees whose intelligence is always filled with the service of the Lord are unafraid. Indeed, they take advantage of the body to render transcendental loving service.
Text 10: I do not wish to accept a material body, for such a body is the source of all distress, lamentation and fear, everywhere in the universe, just as it is for a fish in the water, which lives always in anxiety because of fear of death.
Text 11: The demigods said: Let MahÄrÄja Nimi live without a material body. Let him live in a spiritual body as a personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and, according to his desire, let him be manifest or unmanifest to common materially embodied people.
Text 12: Thereafter, to save the people from the danger of an unregulated government, the sages churned MahÄrÄja Nimi’s material body, from which, as a result, a son was born.
Text* 13: Because he was born in an unusual way, the son was called Janaka, and because he was born from the dead body of his father, he was known as Vaideha. Because he was born from the churning of his father’s material body, he was known as Mithila, and because he constructed a city as King Mithila, the city was called MithilÄ.
Text* 14: O King ParÄ«ká¹£it, from Mithila came a son named UdÄvasu; from UdÄvasu, Nandivardhana; from Nandivardhana, Suketu; and from Suketu, DevarÄta.
Text* 15: From DevarÄta came a son named Bá¹›hadratha and from Bá¹›hadratha a son named MahÄvÄ«rya, who became the father of Sudhá¹›ti. The son of Sudhá¹›ti was known as Dhṛṣṭaketu, and from Dhṛṣṭaketu came HaryaÅ›va. From HaryaÅ›va came a son named Maru.
Text* 16: The son of Maru was PratÄ«paka, and the son of PratÄ«paka was Ká¹›taratha. From Ká¹›taratha came DevamÄ«á¸ha; from DevamÄ«á¸ha, ViÅ›ruta; and from ViÅ›ruta, MahÄdhá¹›ti.
Text* 17: From MahÄdhá¹›ti was born a son named Ká¹›tirÄta, from Ká¹›tirÄta was born MahÄromÄ, from MahÄromÄ came a son named SvarṇaromÄ, and from SvarṇaromÄ came HrasvaromÄ.
Text* 18: From HrasvaromÄ came a son named Śīradhvaja [also called Janaka]. When Śīradhvaja was plowing a field, from the front of his plow [śīra] appeared a daughter named SÄ«tÄdevÄ«, who later became the wife of Lord RÄmacandra. Thus he was known as Śīradhvaja.
Text* 19: The son of Śīradhvaja was Kuśadhvaja, and the son of Kuśadhvaja was King Dharmadhvaja, who had two sons, namely Kṛtadhvaja and Mitadhvaja.
Text* 20-21: O MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it, the son of Ká¹›tadhvaja was KeÅ›idhvaja, and the son of Mitadhvaja was KhÄṇá¸ikya. The son of Ká¹›tadhvaja was expert in spiritual knowledge, and the son of Mitadhvaja was expert in Vedic ritualistic ceremonies. KhÄṇá¸ikya fled in fear of KeÅ›idhvaja. The son of KeÅ›idhvaja was BhÄnumÄn, and the son of BhÄnumÄn was Åšatadyumna.
Text* 22: The son of Åšatadyumna was named Åšuci. From Åšuci, SanadvÄja was born, and from SanadvÄja came a son named Ūrjaketu. The son of Ūrjaketu was Aja, and the son of Aja was Purujit.
Text* 23: The son of Purujit was Ariṣṭanemi, and his son was ÅšrutÄyu. ÅšrutÄyu begot a son named SupÄrÅ›vaka, and SupÄrÅ›vaka begot Citraratha. The son of Citraratha was Ká¹£emÄdhi, who became the king of MithilÄ.
Text* 24: The son of Ká¹£emÄdhi was Samaratha, and his son was Satyaratha. The son of Satyaratha was Upaguru, and the son of Upaguru was Upagupta, a partial expansion of the fire-god.
Text* 25: The son of Upagupta was Vasvananta, the son of Vasvananta was Yuyudha, the son of Yuyudha was SubhÄá¹£aṇa, and the son of SubhÄá¹£aṇa was Åšruta. The son of Åšruta was Jaya, from whom there came Vijaya. The son of Vijaya was Ṛta.
Text* 26: The son of Ṛta was Åšunaka, the son of Åšunaka was VÄ«tahavya, the son of VÄ«tahavya was Dhá¹›ti, and the son of Dhá¹›ti was BahulÄÅ›va. The son of BahulÄÅ›va was Ká¹›ti, and his son was MahÄvaśī.
Text 27: Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« said: My dear King ParÄ«ká¹£it, all the kings of the dynasty of Mithila were completely in knowledge of their spiritual identity. Therefore, even though staying at home, they were liberated from the duality of material existence.