Kushadhvaja (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Kuśadhvaja) is a king in the

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

, the younger brother of King

Janaka Janaka is a character who appears in the Hindu epic Ramayana. He is an ancient Hindu king of Videha, which was located in the Mithila region. His name at birth was Sīradhvaja, and he had a brother named Kushadhvaja. His father's name was Hrasva ...

Mithila Mithila may refer to: Places * Mithilā, a synonym for the ancient Videha state ** Mithilā (ancient city), the ancient capital city of Videha * Mithila (region), a cultural region (historical and contemporary), now divided between India and Nepal ...

. Kushadhvaja's two daughters,

Mandavi Mandavi () is the eldest daughter of King Kushadhwaja and Queen Chandrabhaga in the Hindu epic Ramayana. She is the wife of Bharata, a younger brother of Rama. Legend Princess Mandavi has a younger sister, Shrutakirti. Mandavi is married to ...

and

Shrutakirti Shrutakirti () is a princess featured in the Hindu epic Ramayana. She is the daughter of King Kushadhvaja and queen Chandrabhaga. She is the wife of Shatrughna, the younger brother of Rama. Legend Shrutakirti is the Princess of Sāṃkāśya ...

, were married to Rama's younger brothers, Bharata and

Shatrughna ''Shatrughna'' ( sa, text=शत्रुघ्न, translit=śatrughna, lit=killer of enemies) is a prince of Ayodhya, King of Madhupura and Vidisha, and a brother of Prince Rama in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is also known as ''Ripudaman' ...

, respectively. While Janaka was the King of Mithila, the King of Sāṃkāśya, called Sudhanvan, attacked Mithila. Janaka killed Sudhanvan in the war, and crowned his brother Kushadhvaja as the King of Sāṃkāśya.

In popular culture

King Kushadhvaja is believed in local tradition to have had his seat in around

Rajbiraj Rajbiraj ( ne, राजविराज) is a mid-sized municipality located in the south-eastern part of Madhesh Province of Nepal. Rajbiraj is the district headquarters of Saptari and is the eighth largest city in the province. The township of ...

, where there is still an old historical temple of

Rajdevi Temple Rajdevi Temple (Devanagari:राजदेवी मन्दिर) is a Hindu temple and Shakti Peethas in Eastern Nepal. The primary deity is Rajdevi. It is situated in the Rajdevi Tole, Rajbiraj, Saptari and draws Nepali and Indian pilgrims, ...

with more than thousand-year-old idol lies of various Hindu gods and goddesses. The temple adjacent to the Chinnamasta temple is regarded to be key temple of the

Maithali Maithils (Tirhuta: মৈথিল, Devanagari: मैथिल), also known as Maithili people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group from the Indian subcontinent, who speak the Maithili language as their native language. They inhabit the ...

people. Around

are also present shrines dedicated to his daughters, Mandavi and Shrutakirti, who were married to Rama's younger brothers.

References

Characters in the Ramayana {{Hindu-myth-stub