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Key Details
Type
CityMythology
Hindu Pantheon
Coordinates
7.8731°N, 80.7718°E
About This Location
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.
Primary Sources
“Hanuman saw Lanka, as if hanging in the sky, guarded by rakshasas, delightful, built by Vishvakarman.”
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