Ayodhya

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Ayodhya

Ayodhya is a city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh . It is the administrative headquarters of the Ayodhya district as well as the Ayodhya division of Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya became the top tourist destination of Uttar Pradesh with 110 million visitors in the first half of 2024, surpassing Varanasi .

The settlement was historically known as Sāketa until it was renamed to Ayodhya during the Gupta period . The early Buddhist and Jain canonical texts mention that the religious leaders Gautama Buddha and Mahavira visited and lived in the city. The Jain texts also describe it as the birthplace of five tirthankaras namely, Rishabhanatha , Ajitanatha , Abhinandananatha , Sumatinatha and Anantanatha , and associate it with the legendary Bharata Chakravarti . From the Gupta period onwards, several sources mention Ayodhya and Saketa as the name of the same city.

The legendary city of Ayodhya , popularly identified as the present-day Ayodhya, is identified in the epic Ramayana and its many versions as the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama of Kosala and is hence regarded as the first of the seven most important pilgrimage sites for Hindus. The Ayodhya dispute was centred on the Babri mosque , built 1528–29 under the Mughal emperor Babur and said to have been built on top of a Hindu temple that stood at the birth spot of Rama . In 1992 a Hindu mob demolished the mosque , provoking riots throughout the country. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India announced the final verdict that the land belonged to the government based on tax records; it further ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Ram Mandir , which was consecrated in January 2024 . It also ordered the government to give an alternate five acre tract of land to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to build the mosque .

Etymology

The word “Ayodhya” is a regularly formed derivation of the Sanskrit verb yudh, “to fight, or wage war”. Yodhya is the future passive participle, meaning “to be fought”; the initial a is the negative prefix; the whole, therefore, means “not to be fought” or, more idiomatically in English, “invincible”. This meaning is attested by the Atharvaveda , which uses it to refer to the unconquerable city of gods. The ninth century Jain poem Adi Purana also states that Ayodhya “does not exist by name alone but by the merit” of being unconquerable by enemies. Satyopakhyana interprets the word differently, stating that it means “that which cannot be conquered by sins” (instead of enemies).

“Saketa” is the older name for the city, attested in Sanskrit, Jain, Buddhist, Greek and Chinese sources. According to Vaman Shivram Apte , the word “Saketa” is derived from the Sanskrit words Saha (with) and Aketen (houses or buildings). The Adi Purana states that Ayodhya is called Saketa “because of its magnificent buildings which had significant banners as their arms”. According to Hans T. Bakker , the word may be derived from the roots sa and ketu (“with banner”); the variant name saketu is attested in the Vishnu Purana .

The older name in English was “Oudh” or “Oude”, and the princely state it was the capital of until 1856 is still known as Oudh State .

Ayodhya was stated to be the capital of the ancient Kosala kingdom in the Ramayana . Hence it was also referred to as “Kosala”. The Adi Purana states that Ayodhya is famous as su-kośala “because of its prosperity and good skill”.

The cities of Ayutthaya (Thailand), and Yogyakarta (Indonesia), are named after Ayodhya.

History

Ancient Indian Sanskrit -language epics, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata mention a legendary city called Ayodhya , which was the capital of the legendary Ikshvaku kings of Kosala, including Rama. Neither these texts, nor the earlier Sanskrit texts such as the Vedas , mention a city called Saketa. Non-religious, non-legendary ancient Sanskrit texts, such as Panini’s Ashtadhyayi and Patanjali’s commentary on it, do mention Saketa.

The earliest of the Buddhist Pali-language texts and the Jain Prakrit-language texts mention a city called Saketa (Sageya or Saeya in Prakrit) as an important city of the Kosala mahajanapada . Topographical indications in both Buddhist and Jain texts suggest that Saketa is the same as the present-day Ayodhya. For example, according to the Samyutta Nikaya and the Vinaya Pitaka , Saketa was located at a distance of six yojana s from Shravasti . The Vinaya Pitaka mentions that a big river was located between the two cities, and the Sutta Nipata mentions Saketa as the first halting place on the southward road from Shravasti to Pratishthana .

Fourth century onwards, multiple texts, including Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsha , mention Ayodhya as another name for Saketa. The later Jain canonical text Jambudvipa-Pannati describes a city called Viniya (or Vinita) as the birthplace of Lord Rishabhanatha , and associates this city with Bharata Chakravartin ; the Kalpa-Sutra describes Ikkhagabhumi as the birthplace of Rishabhadev . The index on the Jain text Paumachariya clarifies that Aojjha (Aodhya), Kosala-puri (“Kosala city”), Viniya, and Saeya (Saketa) are synonyms. The post-Canonical Jain texts also mention “Aojjha”; for example, the Avassagacurni describes it as the principal city of Kosala, while the Avassaganijjutti names it as the capital of Sagara Chakravartin .

According to one theory, the legendary Ayodhya city is the same as the historical city of Saketa and the present-day Ayodhya. According to another theory, the legendary Ayodhya is a mythical city, and the name “Ayodhya” came to be used for the Saketa (present-day Ayodhya) only around the fourth century, when a Gupta emperor (probably Skandagupta ) moved his capital to Saketa, and renamed it to Ayodhya after the legendary city. Alternative, but less likely, theories state that Saketa and Ayodhya were two adjoining cities, or that Ayodhya was a locality within the Saketa city.

As Saketa

Archaeological and literary evidence suggests that the site of present-day Ayodhya had developed into an urban settlement by the fifth or sixth-century BC. The site is identified as the location of the ancient Sāketa city, which probably emerged as a marketplace located at the junction of the two important roads, the Shravasti -Pratishthana north–south road, and the Rajagriha -Varanasi -Shravasti-Taxila east–west road. Ancient Buddhist texts, such as Samyutta Nikaya , state that Saketa was located in the Kosala kingdom ruled by Prasenajit (or Pasenadi; c. sixth–5th century BC), whose capital was located at Shravasti. The later Buddhist commentary Dhammapada-atthakatha states that the Saketa town was established by merchant Dhananjaya (the father of Visakha ), on the suggestion of king Prasenajit. The Digha Nikaya describes it as one of the six large cities of India.

As a busy town frequented by travellers, it appears to have become important for preachers such as Gautama Buddha and Mahavira . The Samyutta Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya mention that Buddha resided at Saketa at times. The early Jain canonical texts (such as Antagada-dasao, Anuttarovavaiya-dasao, and Vivagasuya) state that Mahavira visited Saketa; Nayadhammakahao states that Parshvanatha also visited Saketa.

It is not clear what happened to Saketa after Kosala was conquered by the Magadha emperor Ajatashatru around fifth century BC. There is lack of historical sources about the city’s situation for the next few centuries: it is possible that the city remained a commercial centre of secondary importance, but did not grow into a political centre of Magadha, whose capital was located at Pataliputra . Several Buddhist buildings may have been constructed in the town during the rule of the Maurya emperor Ashoka in the third century BC: these buildings were probably located on the present-day human-made mounds in Ayodhya. Excavations at Ayodhya have resulted in the discovery of a large brick wall, identified as a fortification wall by archaeologist B. B. Lal . This wall probably erected in the last quarter of the third-century BC.

After the decline of the Maurya empire, Saketa appears to have come under the rule of Pushyamitra Shunga . The first century BC inscription of Dhanadeva suggests that he appointed a governor there. The Yuga Purana mentions Saketa as the residence of a governor, and describes it as being attacked by a combined force of Greeks , Mathuras , and Panchalas . Patanjali’s commentary on Panini also refers to the Greek siege of Saketa.

Later, Saketa appears to have become part of a small, independent kingdom. The Yuga Purana states that Saketa was ruled by seven powerful kings after the retreat of the Greeks. The Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana also state that seven powerful kings ruled in the capital of Kosala. The historicity of these kings is attested by the discovery of the coins of the Deva dynasty kings, including Dhanadeva, whose inscription describes him as the king of Kosala (Kosaladhipati). As the capital of Kosala, Saketa probably eclipsed Shravasti in importance during this period. The east–west route connecting Pataliputra to Taxila , which earlier passed through Saketa and Shravasti, appears to have shifted southwards during this period, now passing through Saketa, Ahichhatra and Kanyakubja .

After the Deva kings, Saketa appears to have been ruled by the Datta , Kushan , and Mitra kings, although the chronological order of their rule is uncertain. Bakker theorises that the Dattas succeeded the Deva kings in the mid-1st century AD, and their kingdom was annexed to the Kushan Empire by Kanishka . The Tibetan text Annals of Li Country (c. 11th century) mentions that an alliance of king Vijayakirti of Khotan , king Kanika, the king of Gu-zan, and the king of Li, marched to India and captured the So-ked city. During this invasion, Vijayakirti took several Buddhist relics from Saketa, and placed them in the stupa of Phru-no. If Kanika is identified as Kanishka, and So-ked as Saketa, it appears that the invasion of Kushans and their allies led to the destruction of the Buddhist sites at Saketa.

Gupta period

Around the fourth century, the region came under the control of the Guptas , who revived Brahmanism . The Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana attest that the early Gupta kings ruled Saketa. No Gupta-era archaeological layers have been discovered in present-day Ayodhya, although a large number of Gupta coins have been discovered here. It is possible that during the Gupta period, the habitations in the city were located in the areas that have not yet been excavated. The Buddhist sites that had suffered destruction during the Khotanese-Kushan invasion appear to have remained deserted. The fifth-century Chinese traveller Faxian states that the ruins of Buddhist buildings existed at “Sha-chi” during his time. One theory identifies Sha-chi with Saketa, although this identification is not undisputed. If Sha-chi is indeed Saketa, it appears that by the fifth century, the town no longer had a flourishing Buddhist community or any important Buddhist building that was still in use.

An important development during the Gupta time was the recognition of Saketa as the legendary city of Ayodhya , the capital of the [Ikshvaku dynasty](/Ikshv