THE SEARCH FOR RAVANA'S LANKA : THE GEOGRAPHY OF VALMIKI RAMAYANA BY SUKANYA AGASHE (PAPERBACK)

Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata are replete with geographical historical, biological and social material. Ramayana though essentially poetry, reflects time and environment, knowledge and notions of its poet Valmiki, The prevalent notion deep-rooted amongst people about the geographical scenario of Ramayana is entire India and an adjoining Island Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which is generally presumed to Ravana’s Lanka
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 Ramayana sites. They put forward a theory that the geographical location of all the events described in Ramayana 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 Valmiki, like Mt. Chitrakut, Dandakaranya, Pancavati, Kiskindha and finally Lanka. 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
Valmiki’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 Ravana’s Lankā.