Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.90

c6.90

Ayodhyā.—It is one of the seven holy places of the Hindus otherwise known as Ayojjhā or Ayudhā. Vinitā was another name for this city.⁵ It was the birthplace of the first and fourth Tīrthaṅkaras.⁶ Fa-Hien calls it Sha-che and according to Ptolemy it is known as Sogeda. In Brāhmaṇa literature it is described as a village.⁷ This city is also known as Sāketa, Ikṣvākubhūmi (*Āvassaka Nirjjuti* 382), Rāmapurī and Kosala.⁸ The *Bhāgavata Purāṇa* refers to it as a city (IX. 8, 19). According to the *Skandapurāṇa*⁹ Ayodhyā looks like a fish. It is one yojana in extent in the east, one yojana in the west, one yojana from the Sarayū in the south, and one yojana from Tamasā in the north. The spurious Gayā copper-plate inscription of Samudragupta mentions this ancient city, situated on the river Sarayū,¹⁰ identified with the Ghagrā or the Gogra in Oudh (*C.I.I.*, III) about six miles from the Fyzabad Railway Station. According to this inscription Ayodhyā was the seat of a Gupta *Jayaskandhāvāra* or camp of victory as early as the time of Samudragupta. It was an unimportant town in Buddha’s time.¹¹ It is mentioned in the *Rāmāyaṇa* as the earlier capital of Kosala. Some think that Sāketa and Ayodhyā were identical, but Professor Rhys Davids has been successful in pointing out that both the cities existed in Buddha’s time.¹² Ayodhyā was twelve yojanas long and nine yojanas broad according to the Jaina account.¹³ It was the birthplace of Ṛṣabha, Ajita, Abhinandana, Sumati, Ananta and Acalabhānu. Here Lord Ādiguru attained enlightenment. Kumārapāla, the king of the Cālukyas, installed a Jaina image in this city. Here still exists the temple of Nābhirāja.¹⁴ According to Alberuni, it is situated about 150 miles south-east from Kanauj. In the Buddhist period Kosala was divided into north and south. The capital of the southern Kosala was Ayodhyā.