Ayodhya
:
This article is about the Indian city; see Ayutthaya for the Thai city, province and ancient kingdom.Ayodhya (
Hindi: अयोध्या,
Urdu: ایودھیا
IAST Ayodhyā) is an ancient city of
India, the old capital of
Awadh, in the
Faizabad district of
Uttar Pradesh. Under the
British Raj the city and the administrative area around it was called
Oudh. It is on the right bank of the river
Sarayu, 555 km east of
New Delhi. The word
ayodhya is
Sanskrit for "not to be warred against". Some
Puranas like the
Brahmanda Purana (4/40/91) consider Ayodhya as one of the six holiest cities.
In the first few centuries of the
Common Era it was caled Śāketa. Śāketa, or 沙奇 (
Pinyin: Shāqí) was conquered by the great
Kushan /
Yuezhi Emperor
Kanishka c.
137 CE, who made it the administrative centre of his eastern territories. The name occurs again in
Faxian as 沙祗 (
Pinyin: Shāzhī) in the early fifth century. It is not clear when the name changed, but by the time of the visit of the Chinese pilgrim monk,
Xuanzang, c.
636 CE, it was known as Ayodhya.
Ayodhya was one of the most ancient, largest and most magnificent of Indian cities. It is said to have covered an area of 250 km² (96 square miles), and was the capital of the
Hindu kingdom of
Kosala (Kaushal), the court of the great king
Dasaratha, the 56th monarch of the Solar line in descent from
Raja Manu.
1 The opening chapters of the
Ramayana, a religious epic of the Classical
Hindu period, recount the magnificence of the city, the glories of the monarch and the virtues, wealth and loyalty of his people.
Dasaratha was the father of
Rama Chandra, more commonly known as Lord
Rama, the Seventh
Avatara of the
Vishnu, the Supreme Almighty; personification of
Dharma. Many Hindus believe the birthplace of Rama to be in Ayodhya at the place called
Ram Janmabhoomi, the site of the demolished
Babri Mosque. According to the Ramayana, Ayodhya was ruled by the House of
Ikshvaku, who was the son of
Manu.
Ayodhya is also the birth place of five Tirthankars, including the first
Tirthankar of
Jainism, Shri Rishabh Dev. He is known as the father of Jain religion. The city is also important in the history and heritage of
Buddhism in India, with several Buddhist temples, monuments and centers of learning having been established here during the age of the
Mauryan Empire and the
Gupta Dynasty. Ayodhya reached its glorious peak as known to history during the reign of the Guptas over India.
Tulsidas is said to have begun the writing of his famous Ramayana poem (Shri Rama Charit Manas) in Ayodhya in
1574. Several Tamil Alwar mention the city of Ayodhya. Ayodhya is also said to be the birthplace of
Bhahubali, Brahmi, Sundari, King
Dasaratha, Acharya
Padaliptasurisvarji, King
Harishchandra, Shri
Rama,
Achalbhrata, and the ninth
Gandhara of Mahavir Swami.
The
Atharva Veda called Ayodhya "a city built by gods and being as prosperous as paradise itself".
Ayodhya was the victim of pillage and sacking during the Ghaznavid raids and Ghorid invasions. Some Hindu temples were allegedly looted or destroyed. Some believe that the Babri Mosque was constructed on the remains of a temple, but this claim remains very controversial. With Muslim rulers established around the city under Mohammed of Ghor, it lost its strategic and economic importance to
Lucknow and
Kanpur.
Ayodhya today is a small, rustic city with ancient Hindu architecture predominating, and with some Mughal influence. Its population is mostly Hindu with a minority of Muslims, Jains and Buddhists. However, its history and heritage hold an unequivocal importance for over Hindus in
India and across the world.
The
Thai kingdom and city of
Ayutthaya were named for Ayodhya, reflecting the common Southeast Asian practice of adopting place names from Hindu mythology.
Ayodhya is located at
[Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Ayodhya]. It has an average elevation of 93
metres (305
feet).
As of 2001 India
census, Ayodhya had a population of 49,593. Males constitute 59% of the population and females 41%. Ayodhya has an average literacy rate of 65%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 66% of the males and 34% of females literate. 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Ayodhya is also the centre of the Ayodhya Debate concerning the
Ram Janmabhoomi temple and the
Babri Mosque. The
mosque was destroyed in
1992 by
Kar Sevaks and rioters due to the belief that the Ram Janmabhoomi existed prior to the mosque's construction and that the temple was the birthplace of
Rama.
Mob Attack
On
5 July 2005,
five militants attacked the site of the makeshift Ramlalla temple, in Ayodhya. All five were shot down in the ensuing gunfight with the security forces guarding the area, and one civilian died in the bomb blast triggered by the terrorists to breach the cordon wall.
*
Ramayana*
Bhagwan Swaminarayan*
Hou Hanshu*
Destruction of Idol Temples*
Ram Janmabhoomi*
Babri Mosque*Hill, John E. 2004.
The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略
by Yu Huan 魚豢
: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [
1]
*Legge, James (1886):
A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Reprint: New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp. 1965.
*Thomas, F. W. (1944): "Sandanes, Nahapāna, Caṣṭana and Kaniṣka : Tung-li P'an-ch'i and Chinese Turkestan."
New Indian Antiquary VII. 1944, p. 90.
* Watters, Thomas (1904-1905):
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India. Thomas Watters. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: Delhi. Mushiram Manoharlal. 1973.
*
Ayodhya Directory*
Ayodhya - from Jainheritagecentres.com
