The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t20.1

c6.s3.t20.1

The ancient territory of Ayodhya, or Oudh, was divided by the Sarjû or Ghâgra river into two great provinces; that to the north being called *Uttara Kosala*, and that to the south *Banaodha*. Each was again subdivided into two districts. In Banaodha these are called *Pachham-rát* and *Purab-rát*, or the western and eastern districts; and in Uttara Kosala they are *Gauḍa* (vulgarly *Gonda*) to the south of the Rapti, and Kosala to the north of the Rapti, or *Ráwati*, as it is universally called in Oudh. Some of these names are found in the Purânas. Thus, in the Vayu Purâna, Lava the son of Râma is said to have reigned in Uttara Kosala; but in the Matsya Linga and Kurma Purânas, *Srávasti* is stated to be in *Gauḍa*. These apparent discrepancies are satisfactorily explained when we learn that *Gauḍa* is only a subdivision of Uttara Kosala, and that the ruins of Srávasti have actually been discovered in the district of *Gauḍa*, which is the Gonda of the maps. The extent of *Gauḍa* is proved by the old name of Balrâmpur on the Rapti, which was formerly *Ramgarh-Gauḍa*. I presume, therefore, that both the *Gauḍa* Brahmans and the *Gauḍa* Tagas must originally have belonged to this district, and not to the mediæval city of *Gauḍa* in Bengal. Brahmans of this name are still numerous in Ajudhya and Jahângirabad on the right bank of the Ghâgra river, in Gonda, Pakhapur, and Jaisni of the Gonda or *Gauḍa* district on the left bank, and in many parts of the neighbouring province of Gorakhpur. Ajudhya, therefore, was the capital of Banaodha, or Oudh to the south of the Ghâgra, while *Srávasti* was the capital of Uttara Kosala, or Oudh to the north of the Ghâgra.