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Epics like Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are replete with geographical, historical, biological and social material. Rāmāyaṇa though essentially poetry, reflects time and environment, knowledge and notions of its poet Vālmīki. The prevalent notion deep-rooted amongst people about the geographical scenario of Rāmāyaṇa is entire India and an adjoining island Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which is generally presumed to be Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā.
This notion was unacceptable to a few devoted researchers who looked for and found evidences drawn from the text of the epic itself or otherwise for Rāmāyaṇa sites. They put forward a theory that the geographical location of all the events described in Rāmāyaṇa must have been to the north of Mount Vindhya and river Narmada.
This book tries to go deeper in this direction. An attempt is made here to determine the locations of various important places mentioned by Vālmīki, like Mt. Chitrakūṭ, Daṇḍakāraṇya, Pañcavaṭī, Kiṣkindhā and finally Laṅkā. Where were these places in north India?
Locations proposed by earlier researchers are discussed in the light of new data gathered and presented here. Literary and geographical justification is provided for the alternate sites proposed. The identifications and locations of these sites are interpreted in a manner not dissonant with modern knowledge and also with Vālmīki’s geographical scenario. Topographical and satellite image studies (using Google Earth) have helped in understanding the physical features of these sites and locating them in the present map of India.
Some entirely new evidences are provided and new connections, hitherto unnoticed by earlier researchers, are presented in The Search for Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā.
ISBN - 9788179918050
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