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122 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
king Mathava would seem to be no other than Makhādeva or Maghädeva in Pali. The father and predecessor of Nemi or Nimi as noted before, was a contemporary of Naggaji of Gandhåra, Dummukha of Pañcāla and others. It was from Nimi that the long line of the Janakas proceeded. The son and immediate successor of Nimi was Kaļārajanaka,? so called because of his projecting teeth, whose son and successor was Samankara. Thus Makhādeva is rightly described as the forerunner of the powerful kings of Mithilā. According to the Rāmāyaṇa (1.71.3), the adipuruşa of the royal family of Mithila was Nimi (Jaina Nami), whose son was Mithi and grandson, Janaka I. Jánaka's son, Janaka II, father of Sīta, had a brother named Kusadh vaja who became the king of Sāmkāsya. In the Vāyu (88.7-8) and Visņu (iv, 5.1) Purāņas, however, Nimi or Nemi figures as a son of Ikshvāku and is honoured with the epithet of Videha. The Brhadāranyaka Upanişad speaks of the philosopher king Janaka of Mithilā whom Rhys Davids was inclined to identify with king Mahājanaka of the Mahājanaka Jātaka. The Videha country was bounded on the east by the Kausiki, on the south by the Ganges, on the west by the
1 Majjhima, u, 82; Jataka, v, 129. 8 Jätaka, v.
