1. Ayojjhā.-A city of the Ganges (but see below in this article).
Two visits of the Buddha to this city are recorded in the Samyutta Nikaya; on one occasion he preached the Phena Sutta (S.iii.140ff ) and on the other the Dārukkhandha Sutta (S.iv.179f). In both these references the city is said to be on the Ganges; the town usually called Ayojjhā (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. Sāketa), or may possibly refer to another settlement made by colonists from the original Ayojjhā. It is worthy of note that in the Dārukkhandha Sutta some of the MSS. read Kosambī for Ayojjhā. But even Kosambī was on the Jumnā and not on the Ganges.
During the Buddhist period, Ayojjhā on the Sarayū was the capital of Dakkhina Kosala, the janapada roughly corresponding to modern Oudh. This, the Ayodhyā of the Ramayana, is about a mile from the modern Fyzabad. In the Jātaka Commentary (J.iv.82) there is a mention of Ayojjhā, which here evidently refers to the city of the Sanskrit epics. It is called the capital of King Kālasena. It was besieged by the Andhavenhuputtā, who breached the wall and took the king prisoner. Having thus subjugated the city, they went to Dvāravatī.
It was twelve yojanas in length and ten in breadth. The Vindhatirthakalpa (ch.34), a Jaina work, also gives closely related measurements. There were in it spacious roads laid out in orderly fashion. The city contained theatres for females and gardens and mango groves and it was enclosed by a wall. In addition there was a deep moat round the city. The city abounded in brahmans and also fighting men (M.N.Dutt, Ramayana, trsl. I,18-19).
The two celebrated Chinese pilgrims Fa-hsien and Hsuang-tsang, who came to India in the fifth and seventh century A.C., respectively, have recorded their visits to Ayojjha. When Fa-hsien visited it the Buddhists and the brahmans there were not on good terms. There was a stupa to commemorate the visits of the four Buddhas. Hsuan-tsang says that Ayojjha was a kingdom five-hundred li in circuit, and the capital about twenty li. It abounded in cereals and produced a large quantity of flowers and fruits. The climate was temperate and agreeable and the manners of the people were virtuous and amiable. They loved the duties of religion and diligently devoted themselves to learning. There were about a hundred monasteries in the country and about three thousand monks who studied the books of both Mahayana and Hinayana. There were ten deva-temples; heretics of different schools were found in them, but few in number. Vasubandhu wrote many treatises while residing here and explained Buddhism to princes and monks who used to come from other countries. Asanga, too, was a resident of Ayojjha Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II, 247 ff.).
The Dīpavamsa (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 vihāra in a spot surrounded by forest near a curve of the river. Once a warrior named Jagatipāla, of the race of Rāma, came to Ceylon from Ayojjhā, and having slain Vikkamapandu, the heir-apparent to the throne, ruled in Rohana for five years. Cv.lvi.13ff.
2. Ayojjhā.-Capital of Siam. From there Vijayarājasīha, King of Ceylon, obtained monks for his own country (Cv.xcviii.91f). A few years later his successor, Kittisirirājasīha, sent an embassy there for the same purpose.
The King of Siam showed the embassy every mark of favour and granted them the monks. The monks, who came from Ayojjhā to Ceylon, re-established the ordination of monks in the Island. Cv.xcviii.60-139; see also J.R.A.S. (Ceylon Branch), 1903, No.54, pp.17ff.