Lanka

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This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

Lanka (

]

After Ravana's death, he was succeeded by his brother, Vibhishana.

Location of Ravana's "Lanka" according to Ramayana

The Lanka referred to in the still-extant Hindu Texts and the

Some scholars have interpreted the content of these texts to determine that Lanka was located at the point where the Prime-Meridian of India passes the Equator.^[5][6] This island would therefore lie more than 160 km (100 mi) southwest of present-day country of Sri Lanka. The most original of all the existing versions of Valmiki's Ramayana also suggest the location of Ravana's Lanka to be in the western Indian Ocean. It indicates that Lanka was in the midst of a series of large island-nations, submerged mountains, and sunken plateaus in the western part of the Indian Ocean.^[7][8]

There has been a lot of speculation by several scholars since the 19th century that Ravana's Lanka might have been in the Indian Ocean around where the Maldives once stood as a high mountain, before getting submerged in the Indian Ocean.^{[9][10][11][12]} This speculation is supported by the presence of Minicoy Island in the vicinity between India and Maldives, the ancient name being Minikaa, or Mainaka (the mountain met by Hanuman on his way to Lanka), which in the ancient language of the place means "cannibal", probably a reference to Sursa, as cannibals from the Nicobars were frequently found here, along with snakes.^[13][14] Sumatra and Madagascar has also been suggested as a possibility.^[2]

Description

Ravana's Lanka, and its capital Lankapuri, are described in a manner that seems superhuman even by modern-day standards. Ravana's central palace complex (main citadel) was a massive collection of several edifices that reached over one yojana (13 km or 8 mi) in height, one yojana in length, and half a yojana in breadth. The island had a large mountain range known as the Trikuta Mountain(Trikonamalai-In Tamil/Trinkomale-English,where Ravan built Temple for shiva), atop which was situated Ravana's capital of Lanka, at the center of which in turn stood his citadel. ^[15][16][17]

References to Lanka in the Mahabharata

Many of the references to Lanka in the Mahabharata are found in sage Markandeya's narration of the story of Rama and Sita to the king Yudhishthira, which narration amounts to a truncated version of the Ramayana. The references in the following summary are to the Mahabharata and adhere to the following form: (book:section). Markandeya's narration of the story begins at Book III (Varna Parva), Section 271 of the Mahabharata.

Sahadeva's expedition to South

Presence of the King of Lanka in Yudhishthira's Rajasuya

Lanka king is listed as present in the conclave of kings present in Pandava king Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice.

.. The

• Lanka, with its warriors, and horses, elephants and chariots (3:149).
• Lanka with its towers and ramparts and gates (3:147)
• The walls of Lanka (3:282).
• 4 tusked elephants (4.27.12) [recently identified as Gomphothere]

See also

• Sri Lanka
• Mahajanapadas
• Ancient clans of Lanka
• Naga people
• Sinhala Kingdom
• Vishvakarma

References