Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/80

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AJG—AJO

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Riahma, the creator. The population is 2,566, of whom 85 are Musal^ mans. There are to masonry houses and 529 of mud. AJG £01^—Pargana MoHilN AviRXS—Tahsil MokaS—District Unao;— This is merely a large village," situated at the north-west end of the. par* gana," on the banks of the Sai, and about ;three miles to the, south of Auras, It balongs.to a family of Rajputs, of the Janwar tribe, who are said to have founded it on their way from Sultanpur to Nims^r-Misrikh to bathe. The same story is current about all the Rajput colonizations in this part of the country, and probably merely means that they came about the same time. at the It would then be some ten generations ago, or (say) 250 years, commencement of the seventeenth century. There is an extensive Mh.ia. the centre of the village, which is said to have belonged to the Lodhs. The

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masses of broken brick that cover it speak of a different people or different customs and circumstances than those of its present inhabitants. The population is 3,481, who are mostly Hindus, and all of the agricultural, The place is noted for the fine tobacco leaf grown here. classes.

A Government school is.

established, at

which the attendance

the population, 69, are Musalmans.

AJODHYA*

(Ajodhya)

—

—Pargana. Haweli

Otjdh

is

Of

24.

— Tahsit Fyzabad—

District Eyzabad. ^A townin the district of Fyzabad,' and adjoining the city. of that name, is to, the Hindu what Mecca is to the Muhammadans, Jerusalem to the Jews ; it has in the traditions of the orthodox a highly mythical origin, being founded for additional security, not on the transitory earth, but- on -the chariot -wheel of the Great Creator himself. It lies 26° 47' north latitude and 82° 15' east longitude, on the banks of the G;ogra.- The name Ajodhya is explained by well-known local pandits to be derived from -the Sanskrit words ajud, unvanquished ; also Aj, a name of Brahma. ' The unconquerable city of the creator.' But- Ajodhya is also called Oudh, which in Sanskrit means a promise ; in aUusion, it is said, to the promise made by R'^m Chandar when he went in exile, to return-atthe end of fourteen years. These are the local derivations; I am not prepared to say to what extent they may be accepted as correct. Dr. Wilson of Bombay thinks the word is taken from yudh, to fight, The city of the fighting Chhattris,'

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'

Area.

—The ancient

city of Ajodhya is said to have covered'an area of to havebeen the capital of Uttar-Kausala or Kosala (the northern treasure), the country of the Surajbans race of kings, of whom

12 jojan or 48

Icos,

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and

Ram

Chandar was fifty-seventh in descent from R£ja Manu, and of which Rdja Sumintra was the one hundred and thirteenth and last. They are said to have reigned through the Satya, Treta, and Dwapar yugs, and. two thousand years of the KaU or present yug or era. line

With the

Rama's line, Ajodhya became a wilderness, dispersed. From different members of this: scattered people, the rdjas of Jaipur, Udaipur, Jamber, &c., of modern times, on the authority of the " Tirhut Katha," claimed to descend. Even in the days of its desertion, Ajodhya is said still to have remained a cornpa^. rative paradis e; for the jungle by which it was fall

of the last. of

and the royal races became

.

overrun



By f

.

Carnegy,

Esci.,

Comtnissionef.

was that