Shāketa ［娑祇多］ (;  Shagita): A city in Kosala, one of the sixteen great states of ancient India around the sixth century b.c.e., which Shakyamuni Buddha often visited to preach. Scholars generally maintain that Shāketa is another name for Ayodhyā, the capital of Kosala before Shrāvastī. The Mahāparinirvāna Sutra lists the six great cities in the sixteen great states of India as Shāketa, Shrāvastī, Champā, Vaishālī, Vārānasī, and Rājagriha. Shrāvastī was another flourishing city in the kingdom of Kosala. Shāketa is commonly regarded as having been at the site of modern Oudh in northeastern Uttar Pradesh, a northern state of India.