Ayodhya

Ayodhya is the sapta-puri city on the Saryu — Rama’s legendary capital, a Buddhist and Jain center in antiquity, and in modern times the site of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute and the new Ram temple (consecrated 2024).

Overview

The Kosala capital of the Ramayana; the Buddhist record (Saketa — the Buddha’s visits, the monasteries — the site’s Buddhist geography) and the Jain record (five Tirthankaras’ birth associations — Rishabha, Ajita, Abhinandana, Sumati, Anantnatha per tradition); the Saryu ghats and the Hanuman Garhi’s hill; the Ram Janmabhoomi temple (the Ram Lalla’s consecration, January 22, 2024, after the Supreme Court’s 2019 judgment).

History and Legend

The Ramayana’s capital; the medieval devotional geography (Tulsidas’s Manas composed at the city’s orbit); the Babri Masjid’s construction (1528 by tradition) at the site, its 1992 demolition, and the 2019 judgment (the alternate-site mosque at Dhannipur); the archaeology of the site (the ASI excavations’ contested findings).

Architecture and Features

The new temple’s Nagara design (the Chandrakant Sompura plan); the Saryu aarti and ghats; the Kanak Bhawan, Nageshwarnath, and the Jain temples; the deepotsav (the record-setting Diwali lamp-festivals).

Modern Status

A transformed pilgrim city (the temple-era’s infrastructure boom); the dispute’s legal resolution (2019) and the national symbolism noted neutrally by the encyclopedia.

Verification notes

• The 2019 judgment and 2024 consecration are documented; the archaeology’s disputes are noted as contested.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).