Story of Mithi

(MITHI JANAKA). Son of King Nimi. The sixth chapter of Devī Bhāgavata gives the following story about the birth of Mithi.

There was once an emperor of great renown in the line of Ikṣvāku named Nimi. He was the twelfth son of the celebrated Ikṣvāku and was devoted to the welfare of his subjects. He was a very honest, virtuous, righteous and good-natured man of a charitable disposition. The agrahāra (village where brahmins reside) named Jayantapura near the āśrama of Gautama Maharṣi was constructed by this emperor. This emperor of a Rājaṣic mind decided to perform a yāga which would take years for its conclusion and in which land was to be given as gifts. He went to his father Ikṣvāku, and took permission from him to conduct the yāga. He made all preparations for the yāga. He invited Bhṛgu, Aṅgiras, Vāmadeva, Pulastya, Pulaha and Ṛcīka all of whom were well-versed in the Vedas and were worthy of being priests in a Yāga of the kind he was conducting. He then went and invited his Kulaguru (family priest and preceptor) Vasiṣṭha for the Yāga. But Vasiṣṭha had to officiate at a Yāga conducted by Indra and so he commanded Nimi to postpone the Yāga by five hundred years. Nimi did not act according to it and he performed the Yāga with the help of the other sages and completed it successfully. After five hundred years when the Yāga of Indra came to a close, Vasiṣṭha came to see Nimi. Nimi was asleep then and the servants in the palace hesitated to go and inform him of the arrival of the sage. Vasiṣṭha got angry and cursed him and made him Videha (without body). At once the body of the King fell to the ground and the soul got out of it. But before the soul separated from the body Nimi cursed Vasiṣṭha also and separated his soul from his body. Vasiṣṭha was again born as the son of Mitrāvaruṇas.

The other sages present there took the lifeless body of Nimi and after sacrificial ceremonies and worship of gods started to churn the body. After some time a mighty and perfect man of great brilliance was born out of it. Because he was born by Mathana (churning) he was named Mithi. Because he was born from his father (Janaka) he was called Mithijanaka and because he was born of Nimi, a Videha, he was called Videha also. The country which was ruled by Mithi got the name of Mithilā. It is the country of Sītā.