242 Report of the Archceological Survey. [No. 4> 



mile in breadth ; but not one-half of this extent is occupied by build- 

 ings, and the whole place wears a look of decay. There are no high 

 mounds of ruins, covered with broken statues and sculptured pillars, 

 such as mark the sites of other ancient cities, but only a low irregular 

 mass of rubbish heaps, from which all the bricks have been excavated 

 for the houses of the neighbouring city of Faizabad. This Muhamma- 

 dan city, which is two miles and a half in length, by one mile in 

 breadth, is built chiefly of materials extracted from the ruins of Ajudhya. 

 The two cities together occupy an area of nearly six square miles, or 

 just about one-half of the probable size of the ancient Capital of Rama. 

 In Faizabad the only building of any consequence is the stuccoed brick 

 tomb of the old Bhao Begam, whose story was dragged before the 

 public during the famous trial of Warren Hastings. Faizabad was the 

 capital of the first Nawabs of Oudh, but it was deserted by Asaf-ud- 

 daolah in A. D. 1775. 



311. According to the Ramayana, the city of Ayodhya was found- 

 ed by Manu, the progenitor of all mankind. In the time of Dasara- 

 tha, the father of Rama, it was fortified with towers and gates, and sur- 

 rounded by a deep ditch. No traces of these works now remain, nor is it 

 likely indeed that any portion of the old city should still exist ; as the 

 Ayodhya of Rama is said to have been destroyed after the death of 

 Vrihadbala in the great war about B. C. 1426, after which it lay 

 deserted until the time of Vikramaditya. According to popular tra- 

 dition this Vikramaditya was the famous Sakari Prince of Ujain, but 

 as the Hindus of the present day attribute the acts of all Vikramas to 

 this one only, their opinion on the subject is utterly worthless. We 

 learn, however, from Hwen Thsang that a powerful Prince of this 

 name was reigning in the neighbouring city of Sravasti, just one hun- 

 dred years after Kanishka, or close to 79 A. D., which was the initial 

 year of the Sdka era of Sdlivdhana. As this Vikramaditya is represented 

 as hostile to the Buddhists, he must have been a zealous Brahmanist, 

 and to him therefore I would ascribe the rebuilding of Ayodhya and 

 the restoration of all the holy places referring to the history of Rama. 

 Tradition says that when Vikramaditya came to Ayodhya, he found 

 it utterly desolate and overgrown with jungle, but he was able to 

 discover all the famous spots of Rama's history by measurements made 

 from Lakshman Grhat on the Sarju } according to the statements of 



