AyojjhÄ
1. AyojjhÄ.- A city of the Ganges (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 Phena Sutta (S.iii.140ff ) and on the other the DÄrukkhandha Sutta (S.iv.179f). In both these references the city is said to be on the Ganges; the town usually called AyojjhÄ (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. SÄketa), or may possibly refer to another settlement made by colonists from the original AyojjhÄ. It is worthy of note that in the DÄrukkhandha Sutta some of the MSS. read KosambÄ« for AyojjhÄ. However, even KosambÄ« (q.v.) was on the JumnÄ and not on the Ganges.
During the Buddhist period, AyojjhÄ on the SarayÅ« was the capital of Dakkhina Kosala, the janapada roughly corresponding to modern Oudh. This, the AyodhyÄ of the Ramayana, is about a mile from the modern Fyzabad. In the JÄtaka Commentary (J.iv.82) there is a mention of AyojjhÄ, which here evidently refers to the city of the Sanskrit epics. It is called the capital of King KÄlasena. It was besieged by the AndhavenhuputtÄ, who breached the wall and took the king prisoner. Having thus subjugated the city, they went to DvÄravatÄ«.
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 vihÄra in a spot surrounded by forest near a curve of the river. Once a warrior named JagatipÄla, of the race of RÄma, came to Sri Lanka from AyojjhÄ, and having slain Vikkampandu, the heir-apparent to the throne, ruled in Rohana for five years. Cv.lvi.13ff.
2. AyojjhÄ.- Capital of Thailand. From there VijayarÄjasÄ«ha, King of Sri Lanka, obtained monks for his own country (Cv.xcviii.91f). A few years later his successor, KittisirirÄjasÄ«ha, 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 AyojjhÄ 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.17ff.
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