Ayodhya

Ayodhya Uttar Pradesh • India
Ayodhya
Coordinates: 26.8, 82.2
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Area • Elevation	10.24 km² (4 sq mi) • 93 m (305 ft)
District(s)	Faizabad
Population • Density	75,000 (2001) • 7,324 /km² (18,969 /sq mi)
Codes • Pincode • Telephone • Vehicle	• 224123 • +05278 • UP-42

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. Ayodhya is described as the birth place of Hindu god Shri Ram. This Hindu holy city is described as early as in the Hindu Epics. During the time of Gautama Buddha the city was called Ayojjhā (Pali). 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 Hinduism.

In the first few centuries of the Common Era it was called Śāketa. Śāketa, or 沙奇 (Pinyin: Shāqí) was conquered by the great Kushan / Yuezhi Emperor Kanishka c. 127 C.E., who made it the administrative center 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 C.E., it was known as Ayodhya.

Legacy and Importance

Ancient Indian (Bharata) cities and Places(Title and location names are in English.)

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 63rd monarch of the Solar line in descent from Vivaswan or the Sun God.The son of Vivaswan "Viavswat Manu" founded the city of Ayodhya. The opening chapters of the Ramayana, a mythological 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, the Seventh Avatar of the Vishnu. 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. Eventually, Rama ruled Ayodhya.

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.

Bhagwan Swaminarayan, founder of the Swaminarayan Sect of Hinduism lived here during his childhood years. It was from Ayodhya that Bhagwan Swaminarayan started his seven year journey across India as Neelkanth.

Tulsidas is said to have begun the writing of his famous Ramayana poem Shri Ramacharitamanas in Ayodhya in 1574 C.E. 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 kingdoms.

According to an 11th century Korean chronicle the Samguk Yusa, the wife of King Suro of the ancient Korean kingdom of Geumgwan Gaya was a princess who travelled by boat from a faraway land called Ayuta to Korea in 48 C.E. It is commonly thought that Ayodha is the foreign land referred to in the Korean chronicles, but some scholars believe that the foreign land may have been Ayutthaya of Thailand. The Koreans know the princess as Heo Hwang-ok, who was the first queen of Geumgwan Gaya and is considered an ancestor by several Korean lineages.

Geography

Ayodhya is located at 26.8° N 82.2° E. It has an average elevation of 93 metres (305 feet).Ayodhya is situated on the bank of the river Sarayu in Uttar Pradesh(northern India).

Demographics

As of 2001 India census, Ayodhya had a population of 49,593. Males constitute 59 percent of the population and females 41 percent. Ayodhya has an average literacy rate of 65 percent, higher than the national average of 59.5 percent; with 66 percent of the males and 34 percent of females literate. 12 percent of the population is under 6 years of age.

Ayodhya Debate

The Ayodhya debate
Timeline
Babri Mosque
Ram Janmabhoomi
Archaeology of Ayodhya
2005 Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya
People and organizations
L. K. Advani
All India Babri Masjid Action Committee
Babur
Bharatiya Janata Party
Koenraad Elst
Indian National Congress

Ayodhya is also the center 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. The title suit on the disputed site is currently pending in the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court and its judgment is expected shortly.

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. The claim of police that the militants came from Pakistan could not be corroborated by independent evidence. The attack is still shrouded in mystery.

See also

• Ramayana
• Bhagwan Swaminarayan
• Hou Hanshu
• Ram Janmabhoomi
• Babri Mosque
• Hanumangarhi
• Prakash vir Shastri

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• 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. New York : Paragon Book Reprint Corp. : Dover, 1965. ISBN 9780486267609.
• Mandal, D., and Shereen Ratnagar. 2007. Ayodhya: archaeology after excavation. New Delhi: Tulika Books. ISBN 9788189487317.
• "India Begins Search for Contentious Ayodhya Temple". 2003. SCIENCE -NEW YORK THEN WASHINGTON-. (5615): 1958. OCLC 205067478.
• "India's Hindus After Ayodhya". 2002. ECONOMIST -LONDON- ECONOMIST-. 12. OCLC 194357968.
• Irani, Cushrow. 2004. Ayodhya, demolishing a dream. New Delhi: UBPSD. ISBN 9788174764751.
• Rawat, Vidya Bhushan. 2002. Sufi shrines of Ayodhya. Ghaziabad: Vidya Bhushan Rawat. OCLC 66644862.
• Thomas, F. W. (1944): “Sandanes, Nahapāna, Caṣṭana and Kaniṣka: Tung-li P’an-ch’i and Chinese Turkestan.” New Indian antiquary. 1938. Bombay: Karnatak Publishing House, p. 90.
• Watters, Thomas. 1973. On Yuan Chwang's travels in India, A.D. 629-645. New Delhi: Munshiram Mancharial. OCLC 221256602.

External links

• Sri Ramar Temple, Ayodhya divyadesamonline.com. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
• Ayodhya - Jainheritagecentres.com. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
• Entry on Ayojjhaa - Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
• Pilgrim Centers Of India - bharatadesam.com. Retrieved June 17, 2008.

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