The poetry of the moment cannot be missed -- even after those many countless thousands of years: Two identical twins dressed in the attire usually rishis wear stood in the middle of the capacity-packed royal court, right facing the Emperor. Their faces aglow with supreme confidence, they sang the story of the life of Emperor himself in a mesmerising voice and a rare musicality, impressing everybody -- and, in the process, leaving behind the imprint of the moment on history forever. Of course, the Emperor was none other than Prabhu Shri Ram himself. The occasion was the celebration of the very successful culmination of the ‘Rajasooya Yadnya’ to mark the unmatched conquest of Ayodhya’s armies and diplomatic corps over every other kingdom in the unimaginably vast Indian political landscape those countless millennia ago. No kingdom was annexed, of course. But every other King in the country was made to accept the superiority of the Kosala kingdom of which Ayodhya was the capital city from where ruled Lord Ram as the most powerful monarch in the world.

 

The real twist of the episode of singing of Lord Ram’s story in his own presence was that he did not know that those two extremely handsome boys were his own sons -- Kush and Luv! Mahrishi Valmiki described this emotionally charged moment in his timeless epic Shri (Valmiki) Ramayan, the most authentic record of the story of Lord Ram and the attendant history spanning those glorious times. Mahrishi Valmiki was a contemporary witness to Lord Ram’s life and times, and put down in divine words the life-story of the most ideal King the world ever saw, and also of the Ishvaku dynasty to which Lord Ram belonged. Besides the poetry of the moment, what cannot be missed is the description of the glorious city -- nay, megapolis -- of Ayodhya, the capital of Kosala empire.

 

 

(On the banks of - river - Sarayu there was the great kingdom of Kosala that was replete with wealth and grain)

 

 

(The city named Ayodhya was well known and was founded by Manu, the first King of the mankind).

 

Thus narrated the two boys and went on to make a graphic description of the megapolis of Ayodhya. Spread over 12 yojans in length and 3 yojans in width, Ayodhya was a classic example of great and thoughtful planning and urban design. It had broad thoroughfares that were regularly kept clean and sprinkled with water and strewn with fragrant flowers. Those highways and lanes and bylanes were lined with great structures of artistically designed and richly decorated palaces and mansions and public auditoria. The megapolis was dotted with lush green parks and gardens and orchards that had properly-distanced trees of different and useful species, such as mango, with thick canopies. It also had lakes and ponds that were zealously kept clean and beyond pollution. The city also had countless open spaces where people often gathered for public ceremonies and celebrations and festivals and felicitations. The city boasted of a democratic polity of believers of the divine and people of virtue who did not know vices such as thieving and violence. The society boasted of countless numbers of scholars and intellectuals who often engaged themselves in debate and discourse on critical issues of public interest. Ayodhya was a rich place, thanks to its thriving trade for which people from all over the country came. But what made another critical difference was the patronage of the arts and literature from the royal family and social and financial elite. Groups of men and women performed various art-shows and expressed their artistic talents with a sense of complete freedom. Ayodhya was protected not just by its armies, but also by a strong wall all around and a deep, water-filled moat. The surrounding wall had many gates and arches that acted as screeningpoints manned by the security personnel. At this point, it is necessary to go back to the massive geographical spread of Ayodhya. The Ayodhya of those times was 12 yojans in length and 3 yojans in width. Yojan is a measure of distance, and when translated into modern terms, it accounted for 12.625 kilometers. That meant Ayodhya was 154.5 km in length, and 38.625 kilometers in width -- spread along the flow of the Sarayu river. That means, the geographical area of Ayodhya of those times was 5967.5625 square kilometers. What a spread! Bigger than the current National Capital Regions (of Delhi) and almost as big as the Greater Mumbai and Navi Mumbai put together. That brings us to feeling amazed by the sheer scale of details of urban management of Ayodhya. The planners ensured that the city spread along the Sarayu banks up to plus 150 kilometers, but restricted its spread away from the water-front only up to 38- 39 kilometers -- presumably to facilitate better utilisation of the river water for urban usage for people’s needs. And still, the Sarayu flowed uninterrupted by urban abuse and pollution. For, Mahrishi Valmiki described the taste of the river-water to be as sweet as sugarcane juice. Several ancient texts mention that a dip in the Sarayu meant cleansing of body, mind, and soul. Textual references also are available to suggest the importance of benefits people had from bathing in the Sarayu waters. It is believed that the tradition of bathing in the Sarayu went back to lakhs of years. That was Ayodhya -- one of the seven holy cities of India, as stated so clearly in the following verse from the Brahmanda Purana:

 

 

(Seven cities are known to be the doors for sublimation of soul -- Ayodhya, Mathura, Maya (Haridwar), Kashi, Kanchi (puram), Avantikapuri (Ujjain), and Dwaravati (Dwaraka)). Ayodhya finds reference in several other important texts describing not just its physical attributes, but also its metaphysical qualities, such as the one in

 

 

These are enough to prove the highcalibre civilisational quotient of Ayodhya. It was not just a political centre of the Kosala empire, but also the soul of its culture and civilisation and an expression of its fine polity that had enriched itself through arts and literature and protected itself with latest weapons and methods of warfare. Mahakavi Kalidas mentions in his iconic Raghuvansham how the Kings from the dynasty were the protectors even of Gods and their King the Indra, and how they spent from their treasures the last goldcoin when the people needed. In that way, notes Kalidas, the royal treasure of the Kings from Raghuvansh always remained rather empty and the royals had to fill that up by carrying out campaigns in other kingdoms across their own boundaries.

 

Let us come to modern times about asserting the ancient vintage of Ayodhya as an important and proud reference to civilisational context. When Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (the saint who went blind as a child of four) stood before the judge to depose in the Ayodhya temple case, he surprised everybody by quoting verses from the Atharva Ved to assert the existence and importance of Ayodhya as a city that made Bharatvarsh proud -- in the Indic context. The point to be made here is that Ayodhya was a magnetic point of the civilisation of India spanning countless lakhs of years, of which Lord Ram was an icon. The point to underline here is not just about Lord Ram and Ayodhya, but about the maturity Indic civilisation attained over countless lakhs of years. And, it must be asserted that this is not an attempt of a retrograde revivalism, but a recall of the great history from which to draw our sustenance in modern times and create a model for thought and action suitable to modern times. When the country rejoices over the construction of Shri Ram temple at Ayodhya and the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ of Ram Lalla’s (Balak Ram) idol there, time it is for us to rise above any so-called political narrative and remind ourselves that Lord Ram and Ayodhya are the icons that have so far shaped our thought-process very well -- so that we could survive hostile onslaughts for thousands of years.

 

While all other ancient civilisations perished in time, Indian civilisation has survived. Why? Simply because we have been backed by a divine culture that has given us a rare resilience -- whose evidence we often get even today. Ayodhya -- of those ancient times -- is one of the point through which flowed the nectar or potion of our strength to tide over time’s vagaries. This facet of our culture and tradition and history needs to be reminded to ourselves time and again. Hence this reference to Ayodhya -- with a context to Lord Ram. The idea of Ayodhya is the idea of the cultural finesse India of ancient times had been able to achieve. The idea of Ayodhya is the ideal that we must emulate even today -- sheerly for its timelessness, merely for its agelessness. We must understand that the Ayodhya as mentioned in Shri Valmiki Ramayan did not get built overnight. It took thousands of years to come to that fine point -- thanks to its science, thanks to its spirituality, thanks to its academic excellence, thanks to its arts, thanks to its literature, thanks to its culture and heritage, thanks to its seers and royals who offered continued leadership with fine values. That is basic expected of us.