AJODHYA  , an

ancient city of India, the prehistoric capital of Oudh, in the Fyzabad district of the United Provinces . It is situated on the right bank of the Gogra . In the present day the old city has almost entirely disappeared, and its site is marked only by a heap of ruins; but in remote antiquity Ajodhya was one of the largest and most magnificent of Indian cities . , It is said to have covered an area of 96 m., and was the capital of the kingdom of Kosala, the court of the great king Dasaratha, the fifty-sixth monarch of the Solar line in descent from Raja Mann . 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 . Dasaratha was the father of Rama Chandra, the hero of the epic . A period of Buddhist supremacy followed the death of the last king of the Solar dynasty . On the revival of Brahmanism Ajodhya was restored by King Vikramaditya (c . 57 B.c.) . Kosala is also famous as the early home of Buddhism, and of the kindred religion of Jainism, and claims to be the birthplace of the founders of both these faiths . The Chinese traveller, Hsfian Tsang, in the 7th century, found 20 Buddhist temples with 3000 monks at Ajodhya among a large Brahmanical population . The modern town of Ajodhya contains 96 Hindu temples and 36 Mussulman mosques .

Little

local trade is carried on, but the great fair of Ramnami held every year is attended by about 5oo,000 people .