Janaki Navami
Festival falling on the ninth day
(navami) of the dark (waning) half
of the lunar month of Phalgun
(February–March). This festival cele-
brates the birth of Sita, wife of the
god king Rama and heroine of the
epic Ramayana. Sita is not born in the
usual manner, but is found by King
Janakain a furrow as he plows a field
(hence the name Janaki, a female form
of Janaka). As the wife of Rama, himself
an avatar or incarnation of the god
Vishnu, Sita is believed to be a form of
Lakshmi, Vishnu’s wife. In her absolute
devotion to her husband, Sita is consid-
ered a model for Indian women; women
performing the prescribed religious rites
for this day are promised children and
prosperity.
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 tra-
dition, 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
Ramain a dreamand 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 asceticsbegan to come to
this site, which is still an important stop
on the annual pilgrimage cycle of the
Ramanandiascetics. 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.Janamjeya
In Hindu mythology, the sonof King
Parikshit; Janamjeya rules after his
father’s untimely death from the bite of
the serpent Takshaka. Janamjeya has a
pronounced hatred of serpents because
of Takshaka’s role in his father’s death,
and during his reign he performs a great
sacrifice known as the Sarpasatra,
through which most of the snakes on
earthare killed. Takshaka manages to
stop the sacrifice before all of the earth’s
serpents are completely wiped out by
pleading with a brahminto help him.
The brahmin comes to Janamjeya’s sac-
rifice as a guest and requests that the
sacrifice be stopped. Since, according to
tradition, a brahmin guest’s request can-
not be refused, Janamjeya is compelled
to curtail the rite.JanamjeyaJanaki Mandir in Janakpur, Nepal. This temple
marks the site where the goddess Sita first appeared.