Sāketa in Sanskrit, or Saket in Hindi, means Heaven, thus a place where God resides. Saket can be alternatively used for Heaven or Vaikuntha in Hindu mythology, where liberated souls dwell. Saketa is also an old name for the ancient city of Ayodhya, an important Hindu religious place, the capital of Kosala and the birthplace of Lord Rama, the hero of epic Ramayana. Also Ajanavana, an ancient forest near Saket was where Gautam Buddha once stayed and preached.
In Buddhism, the place is thought to be where the sons of Okkaka founded a city. Ayodhya signifies a great importance in the Buddhist literature. It is referred to as Saket in traditional Buddhist literature. British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham who was also the first director general of the ASI identified three Buddhist places — Mani Parbat, Kuber Parbat and Sugriv Parbat at the site of Ayodhya. Claiming that the ancient artefacts found during the land levelling work at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya on Thursday proved that it was a Buddha Sthal, Congress leader Udit Raj demanded analysis of the recovered items by Archaeological Survey of India. In a tweet on Friday, the former MP stated that the ‘Dhamma Chakra’ and ‘Stupas’ recovered from the site bore testimony to his claim. “I am not commenting on the Supreme court verdict as the Apex Court had said it was a matter of faith. But all I am demanding is to get the area studied properly by a team of ASI along with UNESCO so that historical facts were not distorted as evidence prove that the place is a centre of Buddhism. The ‘Dhamma Chakra’ and ‘Stupas’ found at the site of proposed temple is a clear evidence of what I am saying,” he said. “It is a historical fact that Faxian, the Chinese Buddhist monk who had travelled to India, had written about the presence of 100 Ashoka Stupas in Ayodhya. All I want is to save historical facts and not let it get distorted,” he added. Although it is proved that there was a temple of Hindu origin on the land where mosque was built as per ASI. The ground levelling work at the proposed site of Ram temple construction started from May 11.2020. Caption Ancient artefacts recovered from proposed site of ram temple in Ayodhya recently.
