The history of Ayodhya

Note from the author :-
If you search for Ayodhya on Google, the first ten pages will only talk about Ram Mandir. Even the next ten pages will not say anything about the history of Ayodhya. This detailed article will be an attempt to collect the different fragments of history at one place.

This article is long and detailed. So it is recommended to be read on a large screen device like laptop or desktop PC.

The story of King Dashrath

Why should the history of Ayodhya begin with Dashrath. Wasn’t he just the father of King Ram? Our story begin with King Dashrath because he was the most powerful king who ruled Ayodhya and brought it to the peak of its glory.

Dashrath or Dasharatha was born Nemi, but changed his name because of his ability to ride his chariot in all ten directions, including the heaven and underworld.

Brahma is considered to be the creator of all the universe. He created the human race, infact 14 of them called Manu. Each one rules the earth in a cycle. The first son of Brahma is Swayambhuva Manu. Dasharatha is considered to be reincarnation of the first son of Brahma and also an inheritor of his powers.

If Swayambhuva Manu was the first human in a cycle of 14 Manus, we have to skip to the 7th which is Shraddhadeva Manu who is also the current Manu and the creator of the present human race. So Shraddhadeva Manu will be the focus of our story of Dashrath. Shraddhadeva was the son of Sanjna who was the wife of the Sun God, Surya. With her, he had six children, Shraddhadeva manu, Yama (Lord of Death), Yami (Yamuna), Ashvins and Revanta. It is here you have to note that Yamuna is the sister of Yama, connected to the legend of Sujavan Dev Temple near Prayagraj.

Vishnu appeared in front of Shraddhadeva in the form of a tiny fish while he was washing his hands. After the fish asked to be saved, Shraddhadeva brought him home but soon has problems keeping the ever growing fish. That was the Matsya avatar of Vishnu. Shraddhadeva built a boat which housed his family and seven sages along with seeds, animals and birds to repopulate the earth after the great deluge. This boat was anchored by the horn of the fish with Shesha Nag as rope.

After the flood waters receeded, Shraddhadeva married Shraddha and had ten children out of which one was a daughter Ila and a son Ikshvaku, the creators of Lunar and Solar dynasty respectively. Ikshvaku along with Shraddadeva created Ayodhya as a capital to rule the whole earth. Thus begins the story of Ayodhya too. A-yodha also means a place that cannot be conquered. (This part will be elaborated later). Ikshvaku also founded the Suryavamsha dynasty thereby creating a race of warriors who called themselves Kshatriyas.

All human beings born out of Shraddhadeva are called Manavas. The four categories which we know today, Brahmans, Kshatiryas, Vaishya and Sudras are all belonging to the same father. But what overwhelms us is that it all began at Ayodhya. Ikshvaku dynasty formed the kingdom of Kosala. Ayodhya was built on the river Sarayu linking it to the mother of Shraddhadeva.

Just a historical trivia, Kosala King Vrihadvala fought the Mahabharata war on the side of Duryodhan and was slain by Abhimanyu after a fierce fight!

Suryavamsha Kings of the Ikshvaku dynasty

We shall digress slightly from King Dashrath to go a little deep into the lineage of Solar dynasty. It is fascinating as to how this lineage has been traced to modern times and yet labeled as mythology.

So what begins with Shraddhadeva Manu and Ikshvaku goes till 37th generation to Raja Harishchandra and at 53rd generation to King Bhagirath whose mighty penance brought river Ganga to earth. He used the holy water to free the souls of his 60,000 ancestors who were killed by the angry gaze of sage Kapila. Bhagirath penance to please Lord Shiva lasted 1000 years!

King Dashrath is 78th in the lineage of Kosala Kings and Lord Rama or Ramachandra is the 80th generation.

After Ram the Kosala kingdom got divided into smaller kingdoms divided among the sons of Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrugna. The lineage further picks up with Kusha, the son of Rama and then reaches the 50th generation where Brihadbala is the last king to fight in the war of Mahabharat and is killed by Abhimanyu. Brihadbala fought the Mahabharat war on the side of Kauravas. On the 13th day of the war, Abhimanyu penetrates the chakravyu and kills Brihadbala.

There are many reasons why the Khosla dynasty sided with Kauravas. One of them was the destruction of Khandava forest by Arjun for the creation of the city of Hastinapur. The forest was home to many snake tribes several of whom were killed during the attack. Arjun might have just been clearing the forest to make way for land.

Interestingly Brihadbala is the son of Takshaka, the Naga King who kills King Parikshit, the son of Abhimanyu, maybe as revenge. So we also have the intermingling of the fight between Kuru clan (Pandavas) and Ikshvaku clan (Takshaka and Brihadbala).

Post Mahabharat, Brihatkshaya or Barhinaman is the successor to Brihadbala and King Sumitra is the last ruler of Suryavamsha Dynasty of Kosala. He was defeated by Mahapadma Nanda, the first emperor of the Nanda Empire in 362 BCE. King Sumitra did not die but fled to Rohtas, present day Bihar. Interestingly, the local legend of Rohtas claims that the place was named after King Rohitashva, son on King Harishchandra. So there might be a possible explanation as to why King Sumitra fled to Rohtas. It might be a secret hiding place of the Kosala Clan, as a sanctuary. At Rohtas however, all traces of Suryavamsha dynasty are wiped out.

If calculations are correct, then King Sumitra is 147th king in the solar dynasty. King Sumitra was succeeded by his son King Kurma. They could have continued their royal lineage from the fort at Rohtas hill in Bihar. To make matters more confusing, there is another Rohtas fort in Pakistan too. All traces of Kosala dynasty simply vanish in thin air. If the lineage is so well documented, can it be mythological?

King Dashrath had great powers

It was as if mankind and the people of Ayodhya had to wait for 77 generations of Kings to have a King as mighty as King Dashrath. Once he became the ruler of Ayodhya, he first conquered the neighbouring kingdoms and then started slaying the asuras in battle, thereby earning favour of God Indra, the king of Devas. Indra used to many times ask for assistance of Dashrath in battle. For all such expeditions, Dashrath used to take Kaikeyi along with him. Dashrath had around 350 wives but his three favourite were Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi. But when it came to matters of war and diplomacy, he aways valued the opinion of Kaikeyi. As soon as Kaikeyi was born, her mother was exiled. She was raised by her nurse Manthara along with her seven brothers in a palace where she picked up the nuances of politics and the art of survival. It is perhaps her instincts which made her into a person of such character that people hate her so much. But she remained a fighter and survivor all her life.

During one such war expedition, Dashrath was facing the asuras from all the ten directions at the same time. He ordered Kaikeyi, his charioteer that at no time his chariot should stop. During the battle, she noticed one of the wheel bolts getting lose. She inserted her thumb to keep the chariot steady. She was blessed with a diamond thumb which she used in this critical situation. Later one of the arrows from an asura injured Dashrath. She steered the chariot to the safety of the forest where she nursed him back to health. It was during this time that Dashrath granted her two boons which she decided to keep to encash later.

Putrakameshti Yagna by Rishyashringa

This part of our story begins with Vasishtha Rishi who was the chief priest and teacher for the kings of Ikshvaku dynasty. As the primary advisor to King Dashrath, he suggested the Putrakameshti Yagna to be conducted by Shringarishi, a young and dashing sage who had become an expert in Yajurveda. This set stage for one of the most epic event in the history of this dynasty.

But for now we shall digress from the story to introduce a place called Ramkot. This is an elevated palace complex with the massive Raj Dwar Mandir on the east which could have been the entry point to a walled city. Towards the north side of the city, Saryu river curved into an arc, the same way it did thousands of years ago. With this river stretching almost from west to east, it acted as a natural boundary to Ayodhya. This complete area was the palace complex totally off limits to common people except for two places, Raj Dwar which was the official entry point and Ram Ki Paidi which is the official ghat of the royal family.

If you go to Ram ki Paidi today, you shall find scores of people with families who arrive there in the evening and camp on the east side of the paidi for the night. They then wake up early morning and take a dip in the holy river after saying their prayers. The east side of Ram ki Paidi would have been the access point for the general population hundreds of years ago too when people would have come to this place to see the members of the royal family perform their prayers on the opposite side to Ram ki Paidi.

This type of behaviour by the local population is called Civilisational memory.

Do you still think King Dashrath was a mythological figure?

Now lets head back to the story of Putrabameshti yagna. We have the powerful King Dashratha with so many wives but no children. The yagna in question had to be the most grandest as well as spectacular event. So Shringarishi both as the chief priest as well as the event manager planned this one to perfection. He was seen organising every minute detail. The site of the ritual would have been Ram ki Paidi with the rituals going on for days. It is believed that the yagna lasted 12 days at the end of which Agnidev came out of the sacrificial fire and handed over payasam to Dashratha.

All this was keenly watched by Shanta, the sister of Dashrath. Their love did not go unnoticed. Dashrath got her married to Shrinigirishi. They both have an ashram in their honour on the outskirts of Ayodhya.

The bowl of payasam was first offered to Kaushalya who drank half. The next turn was of Sumitra who drank a quarter. Finally half of the quarter left was given to Kaikeyi. The remaining portion was given to Kaushalya again. Since she drank the major portion, she gave birth to Rama. Sumitra gave birth of Laxman and Shatrughana and finally Kaikeyi gave birth to Bharata.

Vikramaditya – The treasure hunter

In the 4th century AD King Vikramaditya of Ujjain rediscovered Ayodhya. He found out nearly 360 places which were associated with Ram and Ramayan including the original Ram Mandir and build temples at each and every one of this place. Many of these temples and places have been destroyed by Muslim zealots and invaders. British historians and explorers discovered 42 of them in Ayodhya in 1877 and in 1905 this number rose to 83. The British experts were actually rediscovering these places again based on local inputs and some documents. One historic fact remains that whenever a temple was destroyed, the locals built another temple over it. Most of the times, the remains of the old temple were used to build the newer one. In case of the Ram Mandir built by Vikramaditya, it consisted of 84 pillars, a few of them survive even today.

The reason why Vikramaditya discovered Ayodhya is not important. It is after all Ayodhya, a city which cannot be conquered. It will keep getting discovered again and again. The reason is also linked with the story of Ram or rather what happens after Ram.

Lakshman was exiled from Ayodhya by the King and his elder brother Ram due to the strange episode with Durvasa Rishi. Separated from his brother, Lakshman had no reason to live and decided to end his life by drowning into Saryu river. Timely intervention of Indra ensured that Lakshman reaches heaven alive. The third brother of Ram is Bharat who had two sons from Mandavi his wife. His first son Taksha founded and ruled the kingdom of Takshashila and second one Pushkala was setup as the ruler of Pushkalavati. Fourth brother Shatrughna also had two sons Subahu and Shatrughati. They respectively ruled Madhupura which is present day Varanasi and Vidisha which is in Madhya Pradesh. The four brothers after leaving their respective kingdoms with their sons, followed Ram into the Saryu. In case of Lakshman, his sons Angada ruled over Karupada and Chandraketu ruled over Mallya.

So that leaves Lav and Kush who are the sons of Ram and the true inheritors of Ayodhya. Lav founded the city of Lavapuri which is present day Lahore. Kush was installed as the king of Kushavati. Not that both these did not try to rule Ayodhya but the legacy of Ram and his three brothers must have been so overwhelming that all the sons were forced to rule their respective kingdoms rather than stake claim over the mighty kingdom that Ayodhya was. Also in the absence of Ram, the city started going into ruin and people simply left the place. But Ayodhya as a city endured.

After Ram it became the duty of Kush to continue the Khosla dynasty. Luv probably left for Lavapuri to rule that kingdom and Kush become a powerful king. Once while bathing in the waters of Saryu he lost his armlet which was picked up by the daughter of Nag King and she felt blindly in love with him. An enraged Kush drained the water of Saryu to locate the armlet. However the animals and fishes dependent on the water started dying. Nag King himself appeared before Kush and handed over the armlet profusely apologising for the act of his daughter. In return he also offered her hand in marriage with the great king. Kush however was not ready for the marriage. None other than Lord Shiva came to earth to convince Kush to marry the nag kanya. To commemorate the wedding Shiva built a shivling on the the banks of Saryu which is the present day Nageshwar Nath Mandir at Ram ki Paidi. This shivling remained indestructible and was later found by Vikramaditya while searching for the legendary city of Ayodhya.

Kush and his wife Kumudvati had a son, Atithi who starts ruling Ayodhya. After Atithi, 46 generation of kings rule Ayodhya with the 47th one being Takshaka and 48th being Brihadbala.

Exactly 20 generations after Brihadbala comes Prasenajit and his son Vidudabha. Both these kings lived in the times of Gautam Buddha. Their events and exploits are recorded in great detail as they worked hard to promote Buddhism. However after the death of Gautam Buddha, Vidudabha invaded the kingdoms of Sakya and Koliya. This war resulted in death and destruction on both side. Though Khosla dynasty emerged victorious, it weakened them so much that they were themselves annexed by the neighbouring kingdom of Magadha. A few generations later, the Khosla Dynasty officially ended with King Sumitra being the last of the Khosla rulers.

During this period upto 5th century BC sporadic mentions of Ayodhya keep coming up, but just as a reference of a city or a place at junction of important trade routes. Buddhist texts mention Shravasti as the capital of Khosla and Ayodhya or Saket as one of the places in Khosla Kingdom. Some texts mention Ayodhya as one of the six important cities in India and also as the capital. Some people believe that Saket and Ayodhya were two adjoining cities. Other place Ayodhya as a part of Saket. After Khosla Kingdom was annexed by Magadh Emperor Ajatashatru, Ayodhya went further into decline and lost its prominence. The focus now shifted to the capital of Magadha which was located at present day Pataliputra. Though Ayodhya remained an important trading place, it remained in relative unknown till 4th century AD when it came under the control of Guptas.

It was the special obsession of Vikramaditya that brought the focus back on Ayodhya. He moved the royal court to Ayodhya from Pataliputra. The local folklore mentions that the city of Ayodhya was deserted after the death of Brihadbala till King Vikramaditya came searching for it. He cut down the forests that had covered the ancient ruins and erected the Ramgar Fort along with 360 temples at each place associated with Ram.

Some historians believe that Vikramaditya is rather the title of kings and not one particular person. One reason for shifting the capital could have been the flooding of Ganga into Patliputra. Some say that the shifting of the capital was to check the advance of Huna who were came crossing the Khyber Pass. They came into India and occupied cities as far as Kaushambi. It was finally a coalition of kings led by Vikramaditya who defeated these Huna and drove them out of India. Ayodhya flourished as a Buddhist centre during the Gupta reign for the next 200 years.

Between 650 AD and 1226 AD, Ayodhya continued to be a significant religious and cultural center but lost its value as a city mostly going into wilderness. In 1226 AD Ayodhya became the capital of the kingdom of Awadh. Though the kingdom of Awadh eventually weakened, Ayodhya itself remained capital till 1856 when it was annexed by the British.