Ayodhyā

Ayodhyā is a city on the Sarayu River in Uttar Pradesh, India, known in antiquity as Sāketa. In the Rāmāyaṇa it is the capital of the kingdom of Kosala and the birthplace of Rāma; Hindu tradition links its founding to Manu and his son Ikṣvāku, whose royal line had the sage Vasiṣṭha as priest. It is counted among the seven most important Hindu pilgrimage sites. Early Buddhist and Jain texts say the Buddha and Mahāvīra visited the city, and later tradition records the poet Aśvaghoṣa, author of the Buddhacarita, as born at Sāketa.