Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Janaka

जनक · janaka

Philosopher-king of Videha; father of Sita

He ran a kingdom and was free, and Krishna holds him up as proof it can be done.

Janaka ruled Videha from the city of Mithila and is remembered in the Upanishads as a king who debated with the greatest sages. He never gave up his throne. A saying credited to him runs: 'If Mithila burns, nothing of mine burns.' Krishna names him as the example of someone who reached perfection through action itself, and so as the answer to Arjuna's wish to walk away.