Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/536

 458. FYZ fought in Satrikh, and the Ráthors won. It is, of course, possible that Srávasti, which was a ruin in the time of Hwen Thsang, 629 A.D., may have been restored in the eleventh century. It is just as possible that the Súrajbans king reigned at Hathili or Asogpur, 15 miles north of Ajodhya, in Gonda, which was the capital of Sobildeo, the conqueror of Sayyad Sálár.* It has not been generally supposed that Buddhism was a militant faith, and powerful in the eleventh century in Oudh; and it is improb- able that this was a Buddhist kingdom, because all the Hindu coins found on its site are of the Boar dynasty, bearing an image of the Boar incarnation of Vishnu, the "Varáha." It is quite probable, however, that there was a contest for the possession of Ajodhya and its holy places; there would certainly, indeed, have been one, for in the seventh century, we learn from Hwen Thsang, Ajodhya was still indepen- dent, although the sovereign of Kanauj was rapidly extending his empire. The history of Ajodhya, however, as of nearly all Hindu kingdoms between the seventh and eleventh centuries, is a mystery. Buddhist civilization. had waned entirely, or was fading away; Chinese travellers, with their minute itineraries, no longer traversed the province. Some great wave of conquest from Central Asia, whose movements are now for ever hidden, had convulsed Indian society. Tunwar Chhattris ruled at Kanauj. The Bais had ruled in Baiswára for many centuries; the Guptas, a Brahmanical dynasty, had governed Magadha; the Sakai, a Buddhist clan, governed Kapila in Gonda; there seems to have been an internecine war between these races. Into the various conjectures which have been hazarded as to the changes which ensued it is not desirable to enter. The result was, apparently, that all ultimately yielded to the growing power of Kanauj, which apparently had entered into alliance with the Ghiznivide Moslem invaders. It is not clear, however, that Ajodhya ever came under the power of the Tunwar kings of Kanauj. They also reigned at Bári, near the Gumti, in Sitapur, to which place this dynasty retreated when pressed by the Musalmans. As was only natural after the war with Sayyad Sálár, Oudh seems to have been broken up into a number of petty fiefs. Still it may with confidence be stated that Ajodhya came under the dominion of the Ráthor princes of Kanauj before the twelfth century. In 1187 Jai Chand granted the village of Komáli to Alenga of the Bhárad- dwaj line. The gods mentioned in the copper-plate grant recording this donation are Vishnu and Lachhmi. Cunningham's Archeological Survey, vol. I, page 329.

an incident which occurred in 1862. A wild fig-tree, or pípal, had grown over the Ling, the emblem of the god'; it was cut down, and its concentred rings proved that its age was 849 years; in other words, that it was planted in 1023, twenty years before the first invasion by the Musalmans, one of whom, Hatila, a young chief, was killed in an attack on this very temple.
 * The antiquity of this place, and of its ancient temple to Asognáth Mabádeo, is proved by

+Calcutta Review, vol. LV. pages 266, 271, 273, 274.

Calcutta Review, vol. LVI. page 43.

Journal, Asiatic Society, vol. IV. 1865, page 200.

Journal, Bengal Asiatic Society, vol. XIX. page 206.