In the epic
At the end of his reign, before walking into the Sarayū, Rāma divides the Kosala country between his twin sons: Kuśa is established at Kuśāvatī and Lava at Śrāvastī. His brothers' sons are similarly settled — Bharata's in the conquered gandharva country, Śatrughna's at Madhurā and Vidiśā — so that the seventh book ends with the whole Ikṣvāku connection distributed across a set of new capitals.
Ayodhyā itself is described as emptied when Rāma leaves, its population following him into the river.
Śrāvastī
Śrāvastī is a real and important city. Identified with the site of Sahet-Mahet on the Rapti in eastern Uttar Pradesh, it was the principal city of Kosala in the historical period — the capital of King Prasenajit, and the place where the Buddha is said to have spent more rainy seasons than anywhere else, at the Jetavana monastery. The site has been extensively excavated.
The epic's account, in which Śrāvastī is founded by Rāma's son, is the tradition's way of connecting the city it knows to the dynasty it reveres. Later Sanskrit literature, including Kālidāsa's Raghuvaṃśa, continues the line and has Kuśa's descendants return to Ayodhyā.
Kuśāvatī itself is placed in the Vindhya country and is not securely identified.
The division
Rāma's last political act is to break Kosala in two. It is presented without comment, but it is a striking end for a poem whose entire first half turns on an undivided succession: the kingdom that could not be shared between Rāma and Bharata is divided between Lava and Kuśa without an argument.
The brothers' sons are settled in the same operation — Bharata's in the conquered gandharva country, Śatrughna's at Madhurā and Vidiśā — so that the seventh book ends by scattering the house of Ikṣvāku across a set of new capitals and emptying the old one.
Śrāvastī in history
Śrāvastī is among the best-attested early historic cities of India. Identified with Sahet-Mahet on the Rapti in eastern Uttar Pradesh and extensively excavated, it was the capital of Kosala under Prasenajit, a contemporary of the Buddha, and the site of the Jetavana monastery where the Buddha is said to have spent more rainy seasons than anywhere else.
The epic's account, which makes it a foundation of Rāma's son, is the tradition connecting the city it knew to the dynasty it revered — the same move it makes with Madhurā and Śatrughna.
Kālidāsa's continuation
The Raghuvaṃśa carries the line past the epic's end, follows Kuśa's descendants, and brings the capital back to Ayodhyā. It is the fullest literary treatment of the dynasty outside the Rāmāyaṇa, and it is the reason the Ikṣvāku genealogy remained a live subject in Sanskrit poetry for centuries after the epic.
Further reading
- Bakker, Hans. Ayodhya. Egbert Forsten, 1986
- Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954
- Bose, Mandakranta. The Ramayana Revisited. Oxford University Press, 2004
- Goldman, Robert P. The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India. Princeton University Press, 1984
- Thapar, Romila. Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. Penguin, 2002
See also
- Lava and Kuśa — Lava and Kuśa are the twin sons of Rāma and Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa, born at Vālmīki's hermitage after their mother's banishment and raised there, who sang their father's story to him at his horse sacrifice without knowing whose sons they were.
- Rāma — Rāma is the prince of Ayodhyā at the centre of the Rāmāyaṇa, exiled for fourteen years by his father's promise, and worshipped across the Hindu world as an incarnation of Viṣṇu and the model of righteous conduct.
- Kosala — Kosala is the kingdom of the Ikṣvāku line in the Rāmāyaṇa, ruled from Ayodhyā on the Sarayū, and one of the great mahājanapadas of early historic north India.
- Ayodhyā — Ayodhyā is the capital of Kosala and the city of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, on the river Sarayū, described as unconquerable — which is what its name means.
- Uttara Kāṇḍa — The Uttara Kāṇḍa is the seventh book of the Rāmāyaṇa, covering Rāvaṇa's ancestry, the banishment of the pregnant Sītā, the birth of Lava and Kuśa and Sītā's return into the earth — generally held with the first book to be a later addition.
- Rāma's departure — Rāma's departure at the end of the Rāmāyaṇa is his walk into the river Sarayū, with the population of Ayodhyā following him, after dividing the kingdom between his sons.
- The Ikṣvāku line — The Ikṣvākus are the solar dynasty of the Rāmāyaṇa, ruling Kosala from Ayodhyā, whose genealogy the epic recites formally and whose descent is claimed by traditions well outside Hinduism.
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.