Saket

For a place named after it in Delhi, see Saket (Delhi).

Saketa 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 alternative 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 (deer park) near Saket (Ayodhya) was where Gautam Buddha once stayed and preached.

In literature

Saket (1932), a famous Hindi epic poem by Maithili Sharan Gupt, a modern-version of Ramcharitmanas, which described an ideal Hindu society and Rama as an ideal man. It is an account of the Ramayana through the eyes of Urmila, daughter of King Janaka of Mithila and the younger sister of Sita, who later became wife of Lakshmana.

In Buddhism

In Buddhism, the place is thought to be where the sons of Okkaka founded a city.

See also

• Swarga