Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s7.43

c9.s7.43

Kosala proper contained three great cities, namely Ayodhyā, Sāketa and Sāvatthī or Śrāvastī, besides a number of minor towns like Setavyā⁹ and Ukkaṭṭha.¹⁰ Ayodhyā (Oudh) was a town on the river Sarayū now included in the Fyzabad district. Sāketa is often supposed to be the same as Ayodhyā, but Professor Rhys Davids points out that both cities are mentioned as existing in the Buddha’s time. They were possibly adjoining like London and Westminster.¹ Sāvatthī is the great ruined city on the south bank of the Achiravatī or Rāptī called Sāhēṭ-Māhēṭ, which is situated on the borders of the Goṇḍa and Bahraich districts of the present Uttar-Pradesh.²