Janaki Mandir, Janakpur: Visitor & Pilgrimage Guide to Sita's Temple

Janaki Mandir (also written Ram Janaki Temple or Janaki Temple) stands at the centre of Janakpur, the largest city of Nepal's Madhesh Province and the seat of ancient Mithila. It is dedicated to the goddess Sita, also known as Janaki ("daughter of Janak"), the consort of Lord Ram, and is built on the spot where, by tradition, a golden image of Sita was discovered in 1657. The saint credited with the find, and with reviving worship at the site, is remembered as the founder of the modern pilgrimage town.

The present temple was commissioned by Queen Vrisha Bhanu of Tikamgarh (in the former Orchha state of central India) and completed around 1910 AD (1967 in the Bikram Sambat calendar); some sources place the work in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. It is popularly called the Nau Lakha Mandir, meaning "nine lakh" temple, because its construction is said to have cost around nine hundred thousand rupees (nine lakh) of the day.

Built entirely of stone and marble in a striking, largely white, Rajput-influenced Koiri style with domes, arches, lattice windows and turrets, the three-storey structure has around 60 rooms and spreads over roughly 1,480 square metres (about 15,900 square feet). Its scale makes it one of the largest temples in Nepal, and its ornate silhouette is the defining landmark of Janakpurdham.

Janakpur is revered by Hindus as Janakpurdham, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Mithila ruled by King Janak, and as the birthplace of his daughter Sita. In the Ramayana, Sita is discovered as an infant by King Janak while he ploughs a sacred field, which is why she is called a daughter of the earth; she grows up in Mithila as a princess of Janakpur.

The city's identity is bound to the marriage of Ram and Sita. According to the epic, Janak set a swayamvara (bride's choice) in which suitors had to string the mighty bow of Shiva; Ram, prince of Ayodhya, alone lifted and broke it, winning Sita's hand. That wedding is the story Janakpur celebrates above all others, and pilgrims come to walk the ground associated with Sita's childhood and her union with Ram.

As the cultural capital of Mithila, Janakpur is also the heartland of Maithili language, Mithila (Madhubani) folk painting, and a distinctive cluster of regional festivals. This guide focuses on the temple and pilgrimage; for the wider Maithili-Madhesi festival calendar (Jitiya, Sama Chakeva, Jur Sital and more), see the site's dedicated Mithila and Madhesi festivals page.

The Janaki Mandir complex and its surrounding lanes hold several linked sites that most pilgrims visit together. Immediately beside the main temple is the Ram Sita Vivah Mandap (also called the Vivah Mandap or Ram Janaki Bibaha Mandap), an ornate pavilion in the southwest of the precinct marking the traditional spot where the celestial wedding of Ram and Sita was solemnised; its brightly painted idols and canopy draw crowds especially around Vivaha Panchami.

A short walk away is the Ram Mandir, one of Janakpur's oldest shrines, built in the Nepali pagoda style and the focus of daily aarti and Ramayana recitation. Nearby are smaller temples associated with the epic, including shrines to Lakshman, Hanuman and Sankat Mochan, and the wider town is dotted with kutis and maths (monastic centres) tied to the Ramananda and Sita-worship traditions.

Janakpur is often called the city of ponds, and its sacred water tanks (sagar) are central to ritual life. The best known are Ganga Sagar and the larger Dhanush Sagar, close to the Ram Mandir, where pilgrims bathe and make offerings; these ghats become the main stage for the Chhath festival, when devotees offer arghya to the setting and rising sun. Also worth the short trip out of town is Dhanushadham, associated with a fragment of Shiva's broken bow.

Janaki Mandir is an active place of worship open to visitors of all faiths, with no ticket required to enter the courtyard for darshan. Like most large Hindu temples it follows a split daily schedule, opening early for morning worship, closing for a midday rest and ritual, and reopening in the late afternoon for evening aarti. Widely reported hours are roughly 5:00-7:00 AM for the morning mangala aarti and darshan through late morning, and about 4:00-8:00 PM in the evening, but these windows shift with the season, festival days and ritual needs, so confirm the day's timings on arrival.

Modest, respectful dress is expected: cover the shoulders and knees, and avoid shorts, short skirts and sleeveless or revealing clothing. Footwear must be removed before entering the temple, and shoes are usually left at stalls or stands just outside the gates; carry a small note for the attendant. As at other shrines, leather items are best left outside the sanctum.

Photography rules vary by area, and photography of the main deity is often restricted, so ask before taking pictures inside. Early morning offers the calmest darshan, while the evening aarti is the most atmospheric time to visit. During major festivals expect very large crowds, tight security and long queues, so arrive early, travel light and keep valuables secure.

The single biggest event at Janaki Mandir is Vivaha Panchami, the anniversary of the wedding of Ram and Sita, observed on the fifth day (Panchami) of the bright fortnight of Margashirsha (Mangsir), which falls in late November or December; in 2026 it is expected around 14 December (confirm against the panchang). Over roughly a week the whole city becomes a wedding venue: a barat (groom's procession), often symbolically arriving from Ayodhya, moves between temples, the deities are dressed as bride and groom, and the marriage is re-enacted with music, folk performances and huge crowds of pilgrims from Nepal and India.

Ram Navami, the birthday of Lord Ram in Chaitra (March-April), is the other major temple festival, marked with special worship, bhajan and processions. Because both festivals honour the divine couple at the heart of Janakpur's identity, they are the peak seasons for pilgrimage and for hotel demand in the town.

Chhath, the great sun-worship festival of the Terai, is celebrated with particular intensity in Janakpur, where devotees gather at Ganga Sagar, Dhanush Sagar and other ponds to offer arghya to the sun at dusk and dawn. For the full Maithili-Madhesi festival calendar of the region, including Jitiya, Sama Chakeva and Jur Sital, see the site's separate Mithila and Madhesi festivals guide.

Janakpur (birthplace of Sita) and Ayodhya (birthplace of Ram) are the two poles of the Ram-Sita story, and pilgrims increasingly travel between them as part of the wider Ramayana circuit that also takes in Chitrakoot, Varanasi and other sites in India and Nepal. The bond is dramatised each Vivaha Panchami, when the groom's barat is imagined as coming from Ayodhya to Janakpur for the wedding.

The two cities have been formally connected in recent years through the Ramayana tourism circuit and cross-border bus links promoted by both governments, including a direct Ayodhya-Janakpur shuttle inaugurated in 2018. The completion of the grand Ram temple in Ayodhya has further boosted pilgrim interest in Janakpur as the natural companion destination on a Ram-Janaki yatra.

For travellers combining the two, a common routing is to approach from the Indian side via Sitamarhi or Jaynagar in Bihar and cross into Nepal to Janakpur, or vice versa; the exact border, transport and any permit or visa formalities should be checked in advance, as cross-border services change.

By air, Janakpur Airport (Janakpurdham) has frequent daily flights from Kathmandu, roughly 30-40 minutes, on domestic carriers such as Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines and others; from the airport the Janaki Mandir area is a short taxi, auto or cycle-rickshaw ride. By road, tourist and public buses run from Kathmandu (about 7-9 hours) and from other Terai cities along the East-West Highway, with the turn-off south to Janakpur.

Janakpur is the only city in Nepal with a cross-border passenger railway. The Jaynagar-Janakpur line (part of the Jaynagar-Bardibas railway) links Jaynagar in the Indian state of Bihar to Janakpur and on towards Bardibas, making it an easy rail approach for pilgrims coming from India; other nearby Indian rail points include Sitamarhi. Check current train timings and any documentation needed to cross the border before you travel.

Most visitors base themselves within walking distance of the Janaki Mandir, where a range of hotels, dharmshalas and guesthouses caters to pilgrims, from budget yatri niwas to mid-range hotels; staying close makes early-morning darshan and the evening aarti easy. Two to three days is enough to see the temple, the Vivah Mandap, the sacred ponds and the Mithila art villages around the city at an unhurried pace; book well ahead for Vivaha Panchami and Chhath, when rooms fill quickly.