Videha

Videha (Sanskrit: विदेह) was an ancient Janapada kingdom, located in a region that overlaps with what is now Mithila federal region in eastern Terai of Nepal and the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The borders of Videha cannot be identified with certainty because the Videha rivers mentioned in the Vedic literature have changed course and shifted by a few hundred kilometers over their history.

During the late Vedic period (c. 1100-500 BCE), Videha became one of the major political and cultural centers of South Asia, along with Kuru and Pañcāla. Late Vedic literature such as the Brahmanas and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad both mention Janaka, as a great philosopher-king of Videha, renowned for his patronage of Vedic culture and philosophy, and whose court was an intellectual centre for Rishi (sages) such as Yajnavalkya. Raychaudhuri suggests 14th- to 8th-century BCE range, while Witzel suggests 11th-8th century BCE for this Brahmanas and Upanishads composition period in Videha. The Vedic school of Aitareyins probably moved to Videha and other centers of scholarship, during the late Vedic period.