1. Ayojjhá.-A city of the Ganges (but see below in this article). Two visits of the Buddha to this city are recorded in the Canon; on one occasion he preached the Phena Sutta (S.iii.140ff ) and on the other the Dárukkhandha Sutta (S.iv.179f). In both these references the city is said to be on the Ganges; the town usually called Ayojjhá (Ayodhya) is certainly not on this river. The records, therefore, go back either to a confused or an unintelligent tradition (see Thomas: op. cit., 15; cf. Sáketa), or may possibly refer to another settlement made by colonists from the original Ayojjhá. It is worthy of note that in the Dárukkhandha Sutta some of the MSS. read Kosambí for Ayojjhá. But even Kosambí (q.v.) was on the Jumná and not on the Ganges.
During the Buddhist period, Ayojjhá on the Sarayú was the capital of Dakkhina Kosala, the janapada roughly corresponding to modern Oudh. This, the Ayodhyá of the Ramayana, is about a mile from the modern Fyzabad. In the Játaka Commentary (J.iv.82) there is a mention of Ayojjhá, which here evidently refers to the city of the Sanskrit epics. It is called the capital of King Kálasena. It was besieged by the Andhavenhuputtá, who breached the wall and took the king prisoner. Having thus subjugated the city, they went to Dváravatí.
The Dípavamsa (iii.15) mentions Ayujjhanagara as the capital of King Arindama and of fifty-five of his descendants.
According to Buddhaghosa (SA.ii.233-4), the people of Ayujjhanagara built for the Buddha a vihára in a spot surrounded by forest near a curve of the river. Once a warrior named Jagatipála, of the race of Ráma, came to Ceylon from Ayojjhá, and having slain Vikkampandu, the heir-apparent to the throne, ruled in Rohana for five years. Cv.lvi.13ff.
2. Ayojjhá.-Capital of Siam. From there Vijayarájasíha, King of Ceylon, obtained monks for his own country (Cv.xcviii.91f). A few years later his successor, Kittisirirájasíha, sent an embassy there for the same purpose.
The King of Siam showed the embassy every mark of favour and granted them the monks. The monks, who came from Ayojjhá to Ceylon, re-established the ordination of monks in the Island. Cv.xcviii.60-139; see also J.R.A.S. (Ceylon Branch), 1903, No.54, pp.17ff.