Ayodhya: Many Cities, Many Histories

ONCE simply a mound of land nourished by the Sarayu River and smaller streams, Ayodhya has seen its fate change repeatedly.

- Valay Singh

For millions of devout Hindus, this mound is the birthplace of Lord Ram; for others, it is the posited birthplace of four of the first ten Tirthankars of Jains; yet others see this as the place where the Buddha is believed to have preached from; or identify it as the mazaar of Hazrat Sheesh Paigambar, the dargah of Badi Bua, revered as Ayodhya’s patron Sufi saint. As the religious dominates all understanding of Ayodhya today, what do we truly know about its pre-modern history?

Around the fifth century BCE, in the kingdom of Kosala lay a busy town at the intersection of two major routes: one going from Sravasti in the north to Pratishthana in the south, and the other going to Taxila in the west from Rajagriha in the east. This town was called Saket. King Prasenjit ruled it from his capital, Sravasti, about 80 kilometres from Saket. Prasenjit is also known as the king of Kosala, which is acknowledged to be another name for Ayodhya.

As trade flourished in the region, Saket came to be coveted by the neighbouring kingdoms of Kashi (Banaras) and Magadha. The Magadha king Ajatashatru annexed Saket and it remained a part of the Magadha Empire until its fall in 200 BCE. Although Saket remained a business centre for 300 years (485–200 BCE) it never grew as a political centre. However, it continued to attract to its bounteous gardens preachers like the Buddha and Mahavira, who proselytised there.

Saket and Ayodhya

Was Saket located in present-day Ayodhya? We cannot conclusively state that, but we do know Saket had become a large and important city in the time of the Buddha, as is evidenced by accounts of his several visits there. Scholars say that the Buddha lived in the sixth century BCE. Historians Thakur Prasad Varma and Swaraj Prakash Gupta in their book,