Ayodhya is a mythical city mentioned in ancient Hindu epics, such the Ramayana and the Mahabharata . These texts describe it as the capital of the legendary Ikshvaku kings, including the Hindu deity Rama. [1] The city is not the same as the modern settlement of Ayodhya, which was known as Saketa until the 5th century CE and had no major correlation with Rama until the 13th century CE.
According to the Ramayana , Ayodhya was founded by Manu, the progenitor of mankind, and measured 12x3 yojanas in area. [2] Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata describe Ayodhya as the capital of the Ikshvaku dynasty of Kosala, including Rama and Dasharatha. The Purana-pancha-lakshana also describes the city as the capital of Ikshvaku kings, including Harishchandra. [1]
The Ramayana states that the city was ruled by king Dasharatha, a descendant of king Ikshvaku. His son Rama was exiled to the forest, and returned to the city after several travails, establishing an ideal rule in the kingdom. According to Uttara Kanda , a later addition to the Ramayana, Rama divided the kingdom into North and South Kosala at the end of his reign, with respective capitals at Shravasti and Kushavati, and installed his two sons (Lava and Kusha) to rule them. [3] Rama himself entered the waters of the Sarayu river, along with all the inhabitants of the city, and ascended to heaven. The location where they ascended is Gopratara Tirtha, according to the Mahabharata . [4] Ayodhya was subsequently repopulated by king Rishabha. [1]
Several other literary works based on the story of Rama also mention Ayodhya. These include the Abhisheka and Pratimanataka by the poet Bhāsa (dated 2nd century CE or earlier), and the Raghuvamsha of Kalidasa (c. 5th century CE). [5]
According to the Jain tradition, five tirthankaras were born at Ayodhya, including Rishabhanatha, Ajitanatha, Abhinandananatha, Sumatinatha, and Anantanatha. [6]
The Ayodhya described in Hindu epics is a wholly fictional city and is not the same as the present-day Ayodhya. [7] [8] The association of the legendary Ayodhya with Saketa (an ancient name for the present-day city) began in the 5th century CE, when a Gupta emperor renamed the town of Saketa to Ayodhya. [9] [10] [11]
Some scholars, such as B. B. Lal and Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia, argue that the legendary city and the modern one are the same. This view, however, is not accepted by mainstream scholarship. [12]
According to the archaeological evidence, the earliest possible settlements at Ayodhya can be dated to c. 8th century BCE, while the Ramayana is set much earlier. The Ramayana depicts Ayodhya as an urban centre with palaces and buildings, while the excavations at present-day Ayodhya indicate a primitive life. [11]
Hans T. Bakker notes that no place called Ayodhya is attested by any epigraphic or other archaeological evidence before the 2nd century CE. [13] The earliest extant inscriptions mentioning a place called Ayodhya are from the Gupta period. For example, a 436 CE inscription describes a donation to Brahmins hailing from Ayodhya. A 533–534 CE inscription mentions a nobleman from Ayodhya. The Gaya inscription, said to be issued by Samudragupta (4th century CE), but possibly an 8th century fabrication according to modern historians, describes Ayodhya as a garrison town. [14]
Early Buddhist and Jain texts mention Shravasti and Saketa, not Ayodhya, as the major cities of the Kosala region. Later texts such as the Puranas, which mention Ayodhya as the capital of Kosala, simply follow the Ramayana. [11]
The Sanskrit sources that mention Ayodhya but not Saketa are predominantly fictional in nature: these texts include Mahabharata , Ramayana, and Purana-pancha-lakshana. On the other hand, the Sanskrit sources that mention Saketa but not Ayodhya are of semi-scientific or factual nature. [15] The Buddhist Pali language texts name a city called Ayojjha or Ayujjha (Pali for Ayodhya), but suggest that it was located on the banks of the Ganges river (see below). [16] In the early Jain canonical literature, "Aujjha" (a Prakrit form of "Ayodhya") is mentioned only once: the Thana Sutta describes it as the capital of Gandhilavati, a district of the largely mythological Mahavideha country. [17] [15]
Among the Sanskrit sources, the identification of Ayodhya with Saketa first appears in texts from the Gupta period, including the Brahmanda Purana and Kalidasa's Raghuvamsha . [14] The Jain text Paumachariya (dated before 4th century CE) first incorporates the Rama legend into Jain mythology. During this period, the Jains linked the mythology of the Ikshvaku dynasty with their tirthankaras and chakravartins. For example, the first tirthankara Rishabha is said to have been born in Ikkhagabhumi (according to Kalpasutra) or Viniya (according to Jambu-dvipa-prajnapati), which is identified as the mythical Ayodhya. [18] In the 19th century, Alexander Cunningham of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) believed that Ramayana also identifies Ayodhya with Saketa, based on a verse that supposedly describes Dasharatha as the king of "Saketa-nagara". However, this verse was fabricated by a Brahmin of Lucknow; it is not found in the original Ramayana text. [19]
A local oral tradition of Ayodhya, first recorded in writing by Robert Montgomery Martin in 1838, [20] mentions that the mythical city was deserted after the death of Rama's descendant Brihadbala. It remained deserted for several centuries until King Vikrama (or Vikramaditya), a legendary king in mythology, came searching for it. [20] On the advice of a sage, Vikrama determined the site of mythical Ayodhya as the place where the milk would flow from the udder of a calf. [11] He cut down the forests that had covered the ancient ruins, established a new city, erected the Ramgar fort, and built 360 temples. [20]
This myth of "re-discovery" seems to recognise that modern Ayodhya is not same as the ancient Ayodhya, and appears to be an attempt to impart the modern settlement a religious sanctity that it originally lacked. [11] The 5th century Gupta emperor Skandagupta (who adopted the title Vikramditya) moved his residence to Saketa, and renamed it to Ayodhya, probably to associate himself with the legendary Ikshvaku dynasty. [11] According to Bakker, the Guptas moved their capital to Saketa either during the reign of Kumaragupta I or Skandagupta, and this event is possibly alluded to in the Raghuvamsha. [14]
The rise of the modern settlement of Ayodhya as a centre of Rama worship is relatively recent, dating back to the 13th century, when the Ramanandi sect started gaining prominence. Several inscriptions dated between 5th and 8th centuries mention the town, but do not mention its association with Rama. The writings of Xuanzang (c. 602–664 CE) associate the town with Buddhism. It has also been an important Jain pilgrimage centre, and an ancient Jain figure (dated 4th–3rd century BCE) has been found here. The 11th century texts refer to Gopataru tirtha in Ayodhya, but do not refer to the birthplace of Rama. [11]
The legend of Rama was not always connected with Ayodhya; the Buddhist Dasaratha-jataka mentions Varanasi, not Ayodhya, as the capital of Dasharatha and Rama. Thus, the association of Rama with Ayodhya may be a result of the claim that he was a member of the Ikshvaku family, and this family's association with Ayodhya. [15]
According to M. C. Joshi, "a critical examination of the geographical data available in Valmiki's narratives does not justify the commonly accepted identification of the ancient city with the modern one". For example, in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, Bharata takes a geographically "non-sensical" route while traveling to Ayodhya from the kingdom of his uncle Kekeya (located in the extreme west of the Indian subcontinent). During this journey, he passes through places located in present-day Odisha and Assam. [8]
The older parts of Mahabharata and Purana-pancha-lakshana mention Ayodhya as the capital of the Ikshvaku kings, but do not state that it was situated on the banks of the Sarayu river. The older parts of Ramayana only suggest that it was located in the vicinity of the Sarayu river. For example, Ramayana 2.70.19 states that the funeral processions of Dasharatha traveled from the city to Sarayu using palanquins and chariots, which according to Bakker, suggests that Sarayu was located at some distance from the city. [15] According to Bakker, only the newer (5th century and later) parts of Ramayana explicitly describe Ayodhya as located on the banks of the Sarayu river. [21]
An ancient historical city named "Ayodhya" (Pali: Ayojjha or Ayujjha [16] ) might have existed, but it was neither the same as the modern settlement of Ayodhya, nor the legendary city described in Hindu epics. This theory is based on the fact that according to some ancient Buddhist texts, the ancient Ayodhya town was located on the banks of the river Ganges, not Sarayu. For example, the Samyutta Nikaya states "Once Lord Buddha was walking in Ayodhya on the bank of the Ganga river". [22] Buddhaghosha's commentary on the Samyutta Nikaya mentions that the citizens of Ayodhya (Ayujjha-pura) built a vihara for the Buddha "in a curve of the river Ganga". [16]
Ayodhya is mentioned in a Taittiriya Aranyaka verse, which is also found with some variations in the Atharvaveda : [23]
aṣṭācakrā navadvārā devānāṃ pūrayodhyā
tasyāṃ hiraṇyayaḥkośaḥ svargo loko jyotiṣāvṛtaḥ
yo vai tāṃ brahmaṇo vedāmṛtenāvṛtāṃ puram
tasmai brahma ca brāhmā ca āyuḥ kirtim prajāṃ daduḥ
vibhrājamānām hariṇīṃ yaśasā saṃparīvṛtām
puraṃ hiraṇyayīṃ brahmā viveśāparājitām
Ayodhya (impregnable), the city of the gods, consists of eight circles (also cycles) and nine entrances;
within it there is the golden treasure-dome, the celestial world, ever-illuminated with light (north pole).
Whoever knows it as the Creator's city ever surrounded with nectar
will have long life, fame, and offspring bestowed on him, by Brahma (the sun), and Brahma (the moon).
Into this city ever shining, moving, and pervaded with Yasas (fame and lustre),
the Creator has entered.
The Ayodhya city, as described in the Taittiriya Aranyaka (and Atharvaveda), is noted by M. C. Joshi to be based in fiction, surrounded by a pool of nectar and described as the location of "the golden treasure-dome of the celestial world". According to Joshi, this Ayodhya is similar to other mythical places such as Samavasarana and Nandishvaradvipa, which appear in the Jain mythology. [24]