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Ayojjhā

1. Ayojjhā.– A city of the Gaṅgā (but see below in this article). Two visits of the Buddha to this city are recorded in the Canon; on one occasion he taught the Pheṇapiṇḍūpama Sutta (S.iii.140 ff ) and on the other the Dārukkhandha Sutta (S.iv.179 f). In both these references the city is said to be on the Gaṅgā; the town usually called Ayojjhā (Ayodhya) is certainly not on this river. The records, therefore, go back either to a confused or an unintelligent tradition (see Thomas: op.cit., 15; cf. Sāketa), or may possibly refer to another settlement made by colonists from the original Ayojjhā. It is worthy of note that in the Dārukkhandha Sutta some of the MSS. read Kosambī for Ayojjhā. However, even Kosambī (q.v.) was on the Jumnā and not on the Gaṅgā.

During the Buddhist period, Ayojjhā on the Sarayū was the capital of Dakkhiṇa Kosala, the district (janapada) roughly corresponding to modern Oudh. This, the Ayodhyā of the Ramayana, is about a mile from the modern Fyzabad. In the Jātaka Commentary (J.iv.82) there is a mention of Ayojjhā, which here evidently refers to the city of the Sanskrit epics. It is called the capital of King Kālasena. It was besieged by the Andhavenhuputtā, who breached the wall and took the king prisoner. Having thus subjugated the city, they went to Dvāravatī.

The Dīpavaṃsa (iii.15) mentions Ayujjhanagara as the capital of King Arindama and of fifty-five of his descendants.

According to Buddhaghosa (SA.ii.233‑4), the people of Ayujjhanagara built for the Buddha a vihāra in a spot surrounded by forest near a curve of the river. Once a warrior named Jagatipāla, of the race of Rāma, came to Sri Lanka from Ayojjhā, and having slain Vikkamapaṇḍu, the heir-apparent to the throne, ruled in Rohaṇa for five years. Cv.lvi.13 ff.

2. Ayojjhā.– Capital of Thailand. From there Vijayarājasīha, King of Sri Lanka, obtained monks for his own country (Cv.xcviii.91 f). A few years later his successor, Kittisirirājasīha, sent an embassy there for the same purpose.

The King of Thailand showed the embassy every mark of favour and granted them the monks. The monks, who came from Ayojjhā to Sri Lanka, re-established the ordination of monks in the Island. Cv.xcviii.60‑139; see also J.R.A.S. (Sri Lanka Branch), 1903, No.54, pp.17 ff.