Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/532

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'

FYZ

454

in A. D. 144 to Gujarat, where they founded the Balabhi djrnasty, and afterwards, as Gahlots, Sisodias, maintained the glory of their race in

Chittaur and Udaipur.

This exile was probably due to the siege of the city by Menander, the Journal, Bengal Asiatic Society, No. 280, page 45). ( Ajodhya then became a wilderness, but it was restored apparently by Bactrian, A.D. 140

Vikramaditya .of Ujjain. It does not appear when the Buddhist doctrines first prevailed in Ajodhya, and it is evident they hardly ever had exclusive sway there.

Asoka, doubtless, erected stupas there B.C. 311, but the two religions to have flourished in that harmony and mutual respect which then distinguished their bearings towards each other. Brahmanism adopted the sacred tree, the Banian or Ficus Indica; Buddhism in return venerated Vishnu and Mahadeo. The Brahman approved the abstinence from animal life, and adopted the monastic system open to all castes ; the Buddhist in return paid the most ceremonious respect to the Brahmanical caste.*

seem

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Buddhist period. In BL-fedhist times the kingdom and capital of Ajodhya were visited by Fahian and Hwen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrims,, in the fifth and seventh centuries. Fabian's visit was AD. 400-410, Hwen Ajodhya was then one of the four or five kingdoms Thsang's A.D. 692. It does not appear what the into which the soil of Oudh was divided. boundaries were, nor is it very clear how this kingdom was 1,100 miles in If Ayamukha was only sixty miles circumference, or nearly so extensive. off, and Sahet Mahet or Sravasti, the capital of another kingdom, about 1,100 miles in circumference, was only fifty-five miles from Ajodhya, there These Oudh kingdoms were Kanauj Ajois no room for such an area. dhya Kusapur, probably Sultanpur, not improbably Bari, near the Gumti in Sitapur Visakha, which may be Satrikh Sravasti or Sahet Mahet But it is really near Ikauna on the Rapti in Gonda, five in all. impossible to identify either Visakha or Kusapur, becailse (there are so many ancient places at about the distances and in the directions indicated from Ajodhya. Prag or Allahabad, Ajodhya, and Kosambi or Kusam, these can be certainly recognised and be used as landmarks of the ancient





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geography.

he notes that Visakha would be twenty-five to thirty gives the following account of Ayuto or Ajodhya

Hwen Thsang is is

170 or 180

He

miles.

Description

very particular in his distances

^i north of

Kusapur;



this



— of Hwen Thsang, A.D. 692. "This kingdom

is

fivethou-

in circumference, and that of its capital is twenty li ( about four miles ); the climate is good, the inhabitants virtuous and learned. There are one hundred monasteries attended by three thousand monks. There are ten temples to idols, and the heretics of different sects are but few in number. There is in the city a very ancient convent. Here, during twelve years, Vasa Bundhu Bodhi Satwa was occupied in composing religious

sandf

li.

.


 * Vide

of inscriptions. Vol. XIX. Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, pages 173 to instances of the fraternity above referred to. N«arly 1,100 miles. ,

209, for

t

list

many