History of Ayodhya

Ayodhya is a place which played a very eminent role in the history of India. It is very well known all over India that the place holds a very religious spot in the Hindu community’s heart because here, Lord Rama was born and spent most of this childhood days. This is why the city also encounters n numbers of pilgrims every day with the wishful thinking of visiting the birth ground of Lord Rama once in a lifetime. However, Ayodhya isn’t exclusively religious to Hindus only but many other religions like Islam, Jainism, and Buddhism also found a powerful abode in this place.

Ayodhya has had a chequered history and is always seen a topic of discussion every now and then. It first came into being in Atharveda period, when the city was believed to be established by gods and hence, it was widely labeled as unconquerable. The city was then considered a very holy place and it was described as a city which cannot be touched by sins. Then in 600 BC, the city played a very prominent role as a trade center.

Later on, during 1 millennium BC, the city was widely identified as Saketa and also earned many honorable mentions in Buddhist and Jain canonical texts. According to those texts, two of the famous religious icon like Gautama Buddha and Mahavir visited this city during the early 5^th century. The Jain text has also mentioned the city about being the birthplace of five Tirthankara. With that, the city thus entered the Gupta period, where people started calling Ayodhya and Saketa as a name of the same city.

After that, the world entered the 7^th century AD when Lord Rama was born in this very place as per the Hindu epic ‘Ramcharitmanas’. Lord Rama was believed to be the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu and is worshipped as a superior being till now also. Lord Rama spent most of his childhood days here in Ayodhya before being called out for an exile by his father. After spending 14 years in exile, Lord Rama then returned to this place and ruled the city till death took him. Later, Ramananda a very famous Hindu mystic constructed a devotional sect in this city.

The time then followed its way to the 16^th century when the Mughal period came into being and the temple was demolished under that rule. The Mughal emperor then ordered to make Babri Masjid on that very place. Later on, India was found to be struggling under the British rule and everybody knows that it was this place from where the sparks of independence first originated.

After successfully achieving independence from British rule, a widespread fury against Babri Masjid created among the Hindu community. So in 1992, a group of Hindu activist demolished the Babri Masjid with a demand of resurrecting the Lord Rama temple again at this place.

From then, India has always seen a conflict circling this city between Hindu and Muslim community. Where Hindu demanded the construction of Lord Rama temple on that very place and Muslim demanded a mosque. Till now, a neutral decision has never been achieved about this matter and struggle is still seen now also.