A pilgrim town built around a story
Hindus have long identified this part of Mithila with Videha, the kingdom of King Janaka in the Ramayana, and with the birthplace of Sita. The modern city, though, is younger than the legend. Accounts from priests and bards suggest Janakpur grew as a cluster of monasteries and hamlets in the 18th century, and the first written description of it as a pilgrimage site dates from 1805. Its founder is remembered as the ascetic saint Sannyasi Shurkishordas. The legend came first; the city grew to honour it.
The defining building came at the start of the 20th century. Queen Vrisha Bhanu of Tikamgarh, in the Orchha state of central India, funded a grand temple to Sita, completed in 1910 to 1911. It cost so much, nine lakh by tradition, that people still call it the Nau Lakha Mandir. Its domes, small towers, lattice windows and 60 rooms make it unlike any other temple in Nepal, and it was placed on Nepal's UNESCO tentative list in 2008. Parts of the temple were damaged in the April 2015 earthquake.
After the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 drew the border through Mithila, Janakpur stayed in Nepal while most of the region went to British India. The city grew into a market town, gained Nepal's only railway in the 1930s and is now the capital of Madhesh Province. Ayodhya and Janakpur became sister cities in 2014, a link pilgrims celebrate each year at Vivaha Panchami. Today Janakpur is a crowded, growing city, but its ponds, temples and festivals keep the old rhythm of pilgrimage at its centre.
