Ayodhya

Ayodhya is a city on the Sarayu River in Uttar Pradesh, northern India. Historians identify it with Saketa, a city named in early Buddhist and Jain texts, which was renamed Ayodhya around the Gupta period. In the Ramayana, Ayodhya is the capital of the kingdom of Kosala and the birthplace of Rama.

At the end of the war against Ravana, the epic says, Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and their allies board the flying chariot Pushpaka and fly north from Lanka to Ayodhya. On the way Rama points out to Sita the places of their story below. This passage is often cited by modern writers who read the vimanas as aircraft; scholars read it as epic poetry.

Ayodhya is also the centre of a modern religious and legal dispute. A mosque built in 1528–29 stood on a site Hindus revere as Rama's birthplace. It was demolished by a mob in 1992. In 2019 India's Supreme Court awarded the site for a temple, and the Ram Mandir was consecrated in January 2024.