Ayodhya

[Berlcha]

Ayodhya 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 Sri Rama, and the capital of the ancient Kosala Kingdom. This Hindu holy city is described as early as in the Hindu Epics. Ayodhya has an average elevation of 93 metres (305 feet).

Etymology

As the saying goes the city is named after King Ayudh. He was the founder of this city and hence came the name Ayodhya. It has been mentioned in the ancient Hindu scriptures that King Ayudh was the forefathers of Lord Rama. The same ragvanshi kul had the great king Raja HarishChandra.

The name comes from the Sanskrit root yudh, meaning “fight” or “wage war,” and it translates to either “not to be fought” or, less literally, “unconquerable.” During the time of Gautama Buddha the city was called Ayojjhā in Pali and Ayodhyā in Sanskrit.

In the first few centuries of the Common Era it was called Saketa. It was conquered by the Kushan / Yuezhi Emperor Kanishka c. 127 CE, who made it the administrative centre of his eastern territories. The name occurs again in Faxian in the early 5th 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.

Under Mughal rule, it was the seat of the governor of Awadh, and later during the British Raj the city was known as Ajodhya or Ajodhia and was part of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, it was also the seat of a small ‘talukdari’ state. It is on the right bank of the river Sarayu, 555 km east of New Delhi. The word ayodhya is Sanskrit for “unconquerable”. Some Puranas like the Brahmanda Purana (4/40/91) consider Ayodhya as one of the six holiest cities in Hinduism.

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

Geography and Climate

Ayodhya has a warm humid subtropical climate, typical of the Indian heartland. Summers are long, dry and extremely hot, lasting from late March to mid June, with average daily temperatures near 32oC (90oF) . They are followed by the monsoon season which lasts till early October, with a total precipitation of about 1067 mm (42 inches) and average temperatures around 28oC (84oF). Winter starts in early November and lasts till the end of January, followed by a short spring in February and early March. Average temperatures are mild, near 16oC (60oF), but nights can be chilly to cold.

History of Ayodhya


Ayodhya is said to be one of the most ancient, magnificent and holy of Hindu cities. According to the ancient Hindu Scriptures, it is said to have covered an area of 250 km² (96 square miles), and was the capital of the powerful Hindu kingdom of Kosala (Kaushal). It is on the banks of the Gogra (Ghaghara or Saryu) River, bathing in which is supposed to destroy even the deadliest of sins. It stands on the right bank of the river Ghagra (or Saryu, as it is called within sacred precincts). The illustrious Ikshvaku of the solar clan (suryavansha) was the ruling dynasty of this region.

This city was ruled by ‘Surya Vanshi’ kings and it was the court of the great king Dasaratha, the 63rd monarch of the Solar line. King Dasaratha’s son ‘Shri Rama’ was believed to be the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord ‘Shri Rama’ was born here. In the Atharvaveda, this place was described as a city that was made by gods and was as prosperous as heaven itself.

Saint Valmiki is said to have begun the writing of his famous devotional poem Valmiki Ramayana, also called the Ramayana. Other sages like Kamban and Tulsidas also wrote their verses of Ramayana in the praise and glory of the Lord SriRama and the magnificent city of Ayodhya. Saint Tulsidas’ Ramayana popularly known as Ramacharitamanasa sings the praise & glory of Lord ‘Shri Rama’. It is one of the most revered scriptures of ‘Sanātana Dharma’ which speaks of idealism, selfless devotion, & piousness. This divine religious text is a source of inspiration, enlightenment & bhakti for billions across the world. Several Tamil Alwar mention the city of Ayodhya. The opening chapters of the Ramayana recount the magnificence of the city, the glories of the monarch and the virtues, wealth and loyalty of his people. Ayodhya is also said to be the birthplace of King Bharata (The First Chakravarti King), Bhahubali, Brahmi, Sundari, King Dasaratha, Acharya Padaliptasurisvarji, King Harishchandra, Shri SriRama Achalbhrata, and the ninth Gandhara of Mahavir Swami.

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.

This city was also a significant trade centre in 600 BCE. Historians have identified this place as Saketa, a key Buddhist centre during the 5th century BCE (it is a widely held belief that Buddha visited Ayodhya on several occasions) which it remained till the 5th century CE. In fact, Faxian, the Chinese monk, recorded several Buddhist monasteries that he saw here.

Ayodhya has a historical significance for the Jain community too. This is the birth place of two important Jain tirthankaras who were born in the early centuries CE. Jain texts also stand testimony to the visit of Mahavira, Jainism’s last tirthankar to this city. 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 the Jain religion.

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 a ‘Neelkanth’.

Amongst the ‘Mokshdayani Puris’ of the world meaning “the lands of spiritual bliss and liberation from the karma-bandhan,” Ayodhya city holds a leading place, along with cities such as Varanasi, Dwarka and others. Ramcharitmanas and other respected Hindu scriptures like the Vishnu Puran, Shrimad Bhagvat Mahapuran and others emphasize the importance of living and visiting such religious places. According to them, these spiritually charged cities increase the Punya (or ‘fruits of virtuous and righteous actions’) and Paap (‘fruits of a person’s wrong doings’) of an individual many times over. Therefore people visiting and living in such holy cities are found doing noble and virtuous deeds.

Today people from various religious faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Jainism live together united, making it a place of enormous sacred importance.

Historical Events

In the 7th century CE, Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang), the Chinese monk, recorded spotting many Hindu temples in Ayodhya. In the epic Ramayana, the city of Ayodhya is cited as the birthplace of Lord Sri Rama, a Hindu deity who was worshipped as Lord Vishnu’s seventh incarnation. Ayodhya became a famous pilgrimage destination in the 15th century when Ramananda, the Hindu mystic, established a devotional sect of Sri Rama.

The Thai kingdom and city of Ayutthaya, and the Indonesian sultanate of Yogyakarta, were named after Ayodhya, reflecting the common Southeast Asian practice of adopting place names from Hindu kingdoms.

The Atharva Veda called Ayodhya “a city built by gods and being as prosperous as paradise itself”.

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 CE. It is commonly thought that Ayodhya is the foreign land referred to in the Korean chronicles, but some scholars believe that the foreign land may have been Ayutthaya of Thailand. However, the local government of Ayodhya and the South Korean government validated and acknowledged the legitimacy of the connection and held a ceremony between the two governments to raise a statue of the princess on the banks of the Sarju River. The princess’s adopted Korean name is Heo Hwang-ok, who was the first queen of Geumgwan Gaya Dynasty and is the ancestor of the Korean Kim family of Kimhae and the Heo surname lineages .

Ayodhya, like other Indian cities, came under Mughal rule. The cultural fabric was enriched with the coming of the Mughals. With Muslim rulers established around the city under Mohammed of Ghor, it lost its strategic and economic importance to Lucknow and Kanpur.

The 16th century witnessed a shift in power with Ayodhya coming under the rule of the Mughal Empire. Ayodhya was annexed in 1856 by the British rulers. Between 1857 and 1859, this place was one of the main centers where the sparks of the first war of Indian Independence originated. These sparks later led to a nationwide revolt of the Indian soldiers in opposition to the British East India Company that began in Calcutta.




Keywords: Surya Vanshi,Ayodhya ,ancient city ,Faizabad district ,Hindu god Sri Rama,Hindu Epics,Kosala Kingdom,King Ayudh,great king Raja HarishChandra,Sanskrit root yudh, fight” or “wage war,Common Era,Kushan / Yuezhi Emperor Kanishka,Saketa,Chinese pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, Agra and Oudh,six holiest cities in Hinduism

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Ayodhya, formerly known as Saketa, is the name of an ancient city, India, located in the Faizabad district of struggle and the state. It has a great significance of the Hindu religion, because it served as the capital of the Hindu kingdom of Kosala.

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Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh



The mosque was built in 1527 by General Mir Baqi by order of Babur, the first Mughal Emperor of India. There is no historical record pointing to the destruction of even the existence of the Hindu Temple at the site when Mir Baqi erected the Masjid in 1528. Despite its size and fame, the mosque was little used by the Muslim community.

On Dec 6, 1992, at noon, a teenage Kar Sevak was "vaulted" on to the dome and that signaled the breaking of the outer cordon. Masjid was demolished by a group of hardcore Hindu activists (around 1,50,000) alleging the site as the birthplace of Lord Rama.

Chronology of events

Dec 22, 1949: Idols of Ram Lalla (infant Rama) were allegedly installed inside the 16th century Babri mosque in the night by a group of Hindus following which a court ruled that the site be locked against entry to quarreling Hindus and Muslims. In 1984 the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launched a massive movement for opening the locks of the mosque whose ownership was disputed by fanatical Hindus who said it was the site of an ancient Ram temple that was razed by Mughal emperor Babur.

Feb 1, 1986: Faizabad session judge allowed Hindus to worship at the site and the locks were re-opened.

Nov 9, 1989: The then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, allowed 'shilanyas', or ground-breaking ceremony, at an undisputed site.

Sep 25, 1990: The then BJP president L. K. Advani launched a Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

November 1990: Advani was arrested on the way in Samastipur in Bihar, following which the V. P. Singh-led coalition government, propped by the Left and the BJP, fell after the BJP withdrew support.

Dec 6, 1992: Tens of thousands of karsevaks, who had massed at Ayodhya from all over the country in what was a well-planned operation, demolished the disputed structure. The incident triggered widespread communal riots in the country (2000 Muslims were killed during the Mumbai - Delhi riots).

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