In “Amazing Ayodhya,” Neena Rai offers readers a scholarly yet accessible journey into the heart of Ayodhya, a city steeped in ancient history and architectural marvels. This review explores Rai’s insights into Ayodhya’s past, urban planning, and its vibrant life, drawing from rich historical sources and architectural principles.
Ayodhya is the flavour of the season in India. Since time immemorial, the city has been attracting Hindu devotees, poets, urban planners, architects, authors, and foreign tourists alike. But the city has gained extraordinary importance since the grand consecration of the Ram Temple at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2024. After many years of litigation, controversies, and political machinations, finally the ‘Ram lalla’ was freed from the shackles of the courts, paving the way for the revival of the quaint city, once very small in shape and size. The book under review was written in 2021, but it’s clear that the author, a Sanskrit scholar who lived in the Middle East, knew well the utility and importance of such a book for people who would visit Ayodhya, well prepared with the knowledge of the rich history of the place. I have also picked up this book so my readers can benefit from the scholarly insights provided by the author.
I was interested in various dimensions of the city, from its origin to the Kosala Kingdom, about the Sarayu River, the population there, the architecture, size, and occupations of local people. Interspersed with pictures—all black and white—the book is an A-to-Z guide on the Ayodhya city and about what the people say and think of it since ages. Written in a lucid style, it provides all answers to an inquisitive reader—a student or a young traveller.
The author says that the Ramayana is full of small details about Kosala. Sage Valmiki tells us that Kosala is a Mahan ‘janpada’ which means ‘the kingdom’ or ‘a country’ in Sanskrit and Hindi. In English, there is a difference between a kingdom and an empire. An empire encompasses several states and countries that are ruled by a single emperor or empress. So, Kosala was an empire. Dasharatha was an Emperor and had many provincial kings who came and paid taxes in Ayodhya—that gives us an idea of tax collection in those years.
Narrating a Sanskrit Shloka (27) which translates to, “In that city (Ayodhya), the great resplendent and admirable king Dasharatha resided; he ruled the world from that city with silenced enemies, like the moon governing the constellations.”
How old is Ayodhya, a very systematic and modern town, in 2024? Shedding light on the importance and antiquity of Manu, the author also brings the ancient origins of Ayodhya into focus. Since Manu, the King among humans, is the first man, Ayodhya is as old as humankind itself, the author Neena Rai informs us. Manu established Ayodhya sometime after the pralays in Satya Yuga, and Ayodhya has been continuously inhabited ever since. Today, the Nagar Palika Parishad has just about 78,000 people residing in it. But the city now has an international airport.
City Layout
The city had an interesting layout. On today’s maps, most cities look like splotched eggs on a pan. Not Ayodhya. Compared with any existing city or district in India today, Ayodhya was different in numerous ways. It followed the ancient Hindu science of architecture called Vastu Shastra; therefore, it was rectangular in shape. According to the Vastu Shastra, the best shapes for settlements are rectangular, square, bow, or lotus-like. The author mentions that another ancient city, Dholavira, also subscribed to the norms of Vastu Shashtra.
With well-laid-out thoroughfares, the beautiful and prosperous city of Ayodhya extended for 12 yojanas in length and for 3 yojanas in breadth, according to Valmiki, who describes the size of Ayodhya. Now, a better understanding of Yojana is required to decipher the size of the city in comparison to the current sizes of our cities and districts. Without deciphering how long a yojana is, one cannot get a picture of the entire area of Ayodhya. So, what is a Yojana? All Sanskrit dictionaries define Yojana as a Vedic measurement of distance used in ancient Bharat. It is written in the book that one yojana equals 8 to 10 miles. She has quoted other experts and written that the total covered area of Ayodhya is equal to 96 x 24 = 2,304 square miles, or approximately 3,707 square kilometres.
Ayodhya district covered an area of 2,916 square miles, or 4,692 square kilometers. The author compares Ayodhya district’s size to the American city of Philadelphia, which is spread over 4,661 sq km, while Japanese capital Tokyo (6,993 sq km) and New York (8,683 sq km) are other cities larger in land area in the world. The attempt is to show how big Ayodhya was. Having seen the size of the city, comes the question of the population of the city in those days. Western cities or districts today have much lower populations compared to their Asian counterparts, and this was the case in previous years too, according to the author. The Valmiki Ramayana states that Ayodhya was densely populated. In terms of population, little has changed from ancient Bharat to current India, as far as Ayodhya is concerned.
Valmiki remarks that there were so many people in the capital of Ayodhya that there was no space to be seen anywhere because of too many homes. Many other accounts also suggest ‘it was heavily populated with houses occupying every inch of the urban capital of Ayodhya.’ Ayodhya was designed in such a manner that it would be protected from enemies. There was a moat around Ayodhya. In the Ramayanik era, there are umpteen mentions found in scriptures and other literature about castles and forts having large, deep, and broad ditches as moats around them. ‘That Ayodhya is an impassable one for trespassers or for other invaders, owing to her impassable and profound moats’ is mentioned by D H Rao in his English translation of the Valmiki Ramayana.