(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'Nimi [see 9.6: 4], the son of Ikshvâku, planned a
sacrifice and appointed Vasishthha to be the priest. But he said: 'I am
already engaged by Lord Indra oh Mahârâja. (2) When I have finished that sacrifice I will
return. Wait till then'. Nimi remained silent and Vasishthha
performed the sacrifice for Indra. (3)
When the guru did not return for
a long time Nimi thought: 'Life is but short' and inaugurated
the sacrifice with another self-realized soul as the officiating
priest.
(4) Having finished the ceremonies the guru upon
his return discovered that his instructions were ignored and so
he pronounced a curse: 'May the embodiment of Nimi who thinks he is
such a great pundit, fall down!'
(5) Nimi on his turn cursed the guru who had
lost his way with: 'And may your embodiment, that with your greed is so poorly aware of
the dharma, fall down too!'
(6) Nimi, fully conversant with the spiritual
knowledge as he was, thus had to give up his body. Vasishthha, the
great-grandfather [died also but] took with [the seed of] Mitra and Varuna [again] birth from Urvas'î
[the heavenly courtesan, see also 6.18:
5-6]. (7) Preserving
Nimi's
body
in
fragrant
substances,
the
great
sages in conclusion of
the Satra sacrifice [a longstanding Soma sacrifice, see sattra]
addressed
the
gathering
of
demigods as
follows: (8)
'If you are content with us, then please, if you can, make the
body of the king come alive!' After they had responded in
confirmation Nimi said: 'Do not bind me to a physical frame! (9) Afraid to be falsely united, sages do not
wish to be in touch that way. [Being] absorbed
in
thoughts
about
the
Lord,
they
are
[to
their opinion sufficiently] of devotional service at the lotus
feet [see bhajan]. (10) I do not wish to assume a
material body that inevitably dies again, for such a body is everywhere
- like it is with fish living in the water - the cause of
distress, lamentation and fear [see also 1.13: 47 and B.G. 9:
3].'
(11) The demigods said: 'Live as you like without a
material body and be, with your presence in a spiritual body, in the eyes of the normally embodied
human being then manifested
or not
manifested to your desire.'
(12) Afraid that for the common man this would
result in a state
of chaos, the great seers churned the
deceased
body
of
Nimi
and
thus
a
son was born
[compare: 4.14: 43 and 4.15:
1]. (13) Because of his uncommon
birth he was called Janaka, because he was born from Videha [from Nimi who was without a
body] he became
known as Vaideha ['free
from
a
body'],
because
he
was
born
from
the
churning he was called Mithila and because of
this the city he founded was called Mithilâ. (14)
From him there was a son
named
Udâvasu, from him Nandivardhana was born, he had a son named
Suketu and Devarâta was his son oh great ruler. (15)
Devarâta begot
Brihadratha, Mahâvîrya was his son and he fathered Sudhriti who had a son
named Dhrishthaketu. He got Haryas'va as his son who was
succeeded by Maru. (16)
Maru's son
was Pratîpaka and Kritaratha
was
born
from
him.
Devamîdha was his son who had one called Vis'ruta who fathered
Mahâdhriti. (17)
Kritirâta followed and from him there
was the son Mahâromâ whose son Svarnaromâ begot
a son
called Hrasvaromâ. (18)
S'îradhvaja
[also called Janaka] was born from him. He for the performance of sacrifices plowed the
earth with the front part of his plow [or s'îra] and thus
the daughter
Sîtâdevî was born [the wife of Râma, Sîtâ means
'furrow']. That was why he was
known as S'îradhvaja. (19) Kus'adhvaja
was
S'îradhvaja's
son
and
his
son
was
king Dharmadhvaja who had
two sons named Kritadhvaja and Mitadhvaja. (20-21)
Kritadhvaja had a son named Kes'idhvaja and Mitadhvaja's son was
Khândikya oh King. Kritadhvaja's son was an expert in the science
of transcendence and Khândikya was an expert in Vedic rituals. Khândikya fled because he feared Kes'idhvaja. From
Bhânumân, Kes'idhvaja's son, there was the son S'atadyumna.
(22) S'uci
was his son and from him
the son Sanadvâja was born. Ûrjaketu, his son, fathered Aja
who got a son called Purujit. (23) He also had a son, Arishthanemi. From his
son
S'rutâyu there was Supârs'vaka who
fathered Citraratha whose son
Kshemâdhi became the king of Mithilâ. (24) His son named Samaratha had
one named Satyaratha. He fathered Upaguru who begot Upagupta. Upagupta
was a partial expansion of Agni [the god of fire]. (25) His son Vasvananta had a son called Yuyudha.
He had a son called Subhâshana
and his son was S'ruta. He begot Jaya and Jaya fathered Vijaya.
Vijaya's son
was Rita. (26) His son was S'unaka, then Vîtahavya
was born who had a son called Dhriti. Dhriti begot
the son Bahulâs'va and from him there was Kriti who had a son
called Mahâvas'î. (27)
Oh King, these kings are the
descendants of Mithila who by the grace of the Lord of Yoga were all
true knowers of the soul. They all found liberation from the worldly
duality,
even though they stayed at home.'