The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t19.16

c6.s3.t19.16

The ancient city of Ayodhya or Sâketa is described in the ‘Râmâyana’ as situated on the bank of the *Sarayu* or *Sarju* river. It is said to have been 12 *yojanas*, or nearly 100 miles in circumference, for which we should probably read 12 *kos*, or 24 miles,—an extent which the old city, with all its gardens, might once possibly have covered. The distance from the *Guptâr Ghât* on the west, to the *Râm Ghât* on the east, is just 6 miles in a direct line, and if we suppose that the city with its suburbs and gardens formerly occupied the whole intervening space to a depth of two miles, its circuit would have agreed exactly with the smaller measurement of 12 kos. At the present day the people point to *Râm Ghât* and *Guptar Ghât* as the eastern and western boundaries of the old city, and the southern boundary they extend to *Bharat-Kund*, near *Bhadarsá*, a distance of 6 kos. But as these limits include all the places of pilgrimage, it would seem that the people consider them to have been formerly inside the city, which was certainly not the case. In the ‘*Ayin Akbari*,’ the old city is said to have measured 148 kos in length by 36 kos in breadth,* or, in other words, it covered the whole of the province of Oudh to the south of the *Ghâghra* river. The origin of the larger number is obvious. The 12 *yojanas* of the ‘*Râmâyana*,’ which are equal to 48 kos, being considered too small for the great city of Rama, the Brahmans simply added 100 kos to make the size tally with their own extravagant notions. The present city of Ajudhya, which is confined to the north-east corner of the old site, is just two miles in length by about three quarters of a mile in breadth; but not one half of this extent is occupied by buildings, and the whole place wears a look of decay. There are no high mounds of ruins, covered with broken statues and sculptured pillars, such as mark the sites of other ancient cities, but only a low irregular mass of rubbish heaps, from which all the bricks have been excavated for the houses of the neighbouring city of Faizâbâd. This Muhammadan city, which is two miles and a half in length by one mile in breadth, is built chiefly of materials extracted from the ruins of Ajudhya. The two cities together occupy an area of nearly six square miles, or just about one-half of the probable size of the ancient capital of Râma. In Faizâbâd the only building of any consequence is the stuccoed brick tomb of the old Bhao Begam, whose story was dragged before the public during the famous trial of Warren Hastings. Faizâbâd was the capital of the first Nawâbs of Oudh, but it was deserted by Asaf-ud-daolah in A.D. 1775.