In Hinduism, Ikshvaku is the grandson of Vivasvan or Surya and the son of Vaivasvata Manu.
They ruled from the Kosala Kingdom, today known as Awadh in the state of Uttar Pradesh along the banks of river Sarayu with Saketa, Ayodhya today as their capital.
Ikshvaku is the first king who executed the Manusmrti or religious rules of Hindu living composed by his father Manu.
Ikshvaku ruled as a Monarch at the beginning of the Satya Yuga or First Yuga, had a hundred sons. His estates descended to his eldest son Vikukshi.
The Ikshvaku dynasty, in Puranic literature, was a dynasty founded by the legendary king Ikshvaku.
Ikshvaku literally means “sugar cane”. The dynasty is also known as Sūryavaṁśa (the Solar dynasty).
Lord Rama belonged to the Ikshavaku dynasty.
Twenty-two out of the twenty-four Jain Tirthankara belonged to this dynasty. Rishabha is present in both Hindu as well as Jain mythology.
Both refer to the same person. According to the Buddhist texts, Gautama Buddha belonged to this dynasty.
The influential personalities belonging to this royal house are Bharata, Harishchandra, Dilīpa, Sagara, Raghu, Lord Ramachandra and Pasenadi.
Both the Hindu Puranas and the Buddhist texts include Shuddodhana, Gautama Buddha and Rahula in their accounts of the Ikshvaku dynasty.
But according to the Buddhist texts, Mahasammata, an ancestor of Ikshvaku was the founder of this dynasty, who was elected by the people as the first king of the present era.
According to the Puranas, the supreme preceptor of the Ikshvaku dynasty was sage Vashishta.