The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s1.131

c5.s1.131

Ayodhyâ--Oudh, the kingdom of Râma. At the time of the Râmâyaṇa (I, chs. 49, 50), the southern boundary of Kośala was the river Syandikâ or Sai between the Gumti and the Ganges. During the Buddhist period, Ayodhyâ was divided into Uttara (Northern) Kośala and Dakshiṇa (Southern) Kośala. The river Sarayû divided the two provinces. The capital of the former was Śrâvastî on the Rapti, and that of the latter was Ayodhyâ on the Sarayû. At the time of Buddha, the kingdom of Kośala under Prasenajit's father Mahâkośala extended from the Himalayas to the Ganges and from the Râmgaṅgâ to the Gandak. The ancient capital of the kingdom was also called Ayodhyâ, the birth-place of Râmachandra. At a place in the town called Janmasthâna he was born; at Chirodaka, called also Chirasâgara, Daśaratha performed the sacrifice for obtaining a son with the help of Ṛishyaśṛiṅga Ṛishi; at a place called Tretâ-ki-Thâkur, Râmachandra performed the horse-sacrifice by setting up the image of Sitâ; at Ratnamaṇḍapa, he held his council (Muktikopanishad, ch. 1); at Swargadwâram in Fyzabad, his body was burned. At Lakshmaṇa-kuṇḍa, Lakshmaṇa disappeared in the river Sarayû. Daśaratha accidentally killed Śravaṇa, the blind Ṛishi's son, at Majhaurâ in the district of Fyzabad. Âdinâtha, a Jaina Tirthankara, was born at Ayodhyâ (Führer's MAI.). Cunningham has identified the Sugrîva Parvata with the Kâlakârâma or Pûrvârâma monastery of the Mahâvaṃśa, the Maṇi Parvata with Aśoka's Stûpa mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang, the Kubera Parvata with the Stûpa containing the hair and nails of Buddha (Arch. S. Rep., vol. i). The Maṇi Parvata is said to be a fragment of the Gandhamâdana mountain which Hanumâna carried on his head on his way to Laṅkâ. The sacred places at Ayodhyâ were restored by Vikramâditya (evidently a Gupta king), who was an adherent of the Brahmanical faith, in the second century A.D., or according to some, in the fifth century A.D., as the sacred places at Bṛindâban were restored by Rupa and Sanâtana in the sixteenth century A.D. Ayodhyâ is the Sâketa of the Buddhists and Sagada of Ptolemy (see Saketa).