Hindu PantheonCity
Lanka
The golden island kingdom of the demon king Ravana, who abducted Sita and was defeated by Rama's army.
About Lanka
Ravana's island city
Lanka in the Ramayana is Ravana's golden capital, taken from Kubera, reached by Hanuman's leap and later by Rama's army on the causeway. The Sundara Kanda is the reconnaissance; the Yuddha Kanda is the war. Identification with Sri Lanka is traditional and old, but the poem's Lanka is a rakshasa fortress with Pushpaka and a grove where Sita is held. Do not flatten it into a modern map without saying the epic comes first.
On the map
Lanka among other places of the Hindu Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Valmiki, Ramayana, Sundara Kanda
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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