Lanka (, ) is the name given in

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

epics to the island fortress capital of the legendary asura king Ravana in the epics of the '' Ramayana'' and the '' Mahabharata''. The fortress was situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks known as the Trikuta Mountains. The ancient city of Lankapura is said to have been burnt down by Hanuman. After its king, Ravana was killed by Rama with the help of Ravana's brother Vibhishana, the latter was crowned king of Lankapura. His descendants were said to still rule the kingdom during the period of the Pandavas. According to the ''Mahabharata'', the Pandava Sahadeva visited this kingdom during his southern military campaign for the

rajasuya Rajasuya () is a Śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion. It is ceremony that marks a consecration of a king. According to the Puranas, it refers to a great sacrifice performed by a Chakravarti - universal monarch, in which the tributary princes may ...

of Yudhishthira.

Ramayana

The island was situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks known as the Trikuta Mountains. The ancient city of Lankapura is thought to have been burnt down by Hanuman. After its king, Ravana was killed by Rama with the help of Ravana's brother Vibhishana, the latter was crowned king of Lankapura. His descendants were said to still rule the kingdom during the period of the Pandavas. According to the ''Mahabharata'', the Pandava Sahadeva visited this kingdom during his southern military campaign for the

of Yudhishthira.

Rulers of Lanka

According to both the '' Ramayana'' and the '' Mahabharata'', Lanka was originally ruled by a rakshasa named

Sumali ''Ramayana'' is one of the two major Sanskrit ancient epics (''Itihasa''s) of Hindu literature. It was composed by sage Valmiki. This is a list of important characters that appear in the epic. A Agastya Agastya was a son of sage Pulastya ...

. Kubera seized control of Lanka and established the

Yaksha Kingdom Yaksha Kingdom refers to the territory of a category of mythical creatures called Yakshas who were one of the mythological beings of Lanka. They had kinship with another more ferocious category of beings, the Rakshasas. The King of Yakshas, Va ...

and his capital was guarded by rakshasas. His half-brother Ravana, son of the sage Vishravaya and

's daughter Kaikesi, fought with Kubera and took Lanka from him. Ravana ruled Lanka as king of the

Rakshasa Kingdom Rakshasa Kingdom refers to the territory of Rakshasas who were a tribe, mentioned along with others like Devas (including Rudras, Maruts, Vasus and Adityas), Asuras (including Daityas, Danavas and Kalakeyas), Pisachas, Gandharvas, Kimpurushas, Van ...

. The battle in Lanka is depicted in a famous relief in the 12th-century Khmer temple of

Angkor Wat Angkor Wat (; km, អង្គរវត្ត, "City/Capital of Temples") is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring . Originally constructed as a Hinduism, Hindu temple dedicated ...

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 Ramayana (referred to as Ravana's Lanka), is considered to be a large island-country, situated in the Indian Ocean. Studies refer that the Palace of Ravana was located in Sigiriya the palace built by the Kashyapa I of Anuradhapura as the legend describes the capital of the kingdom was located between plateaus and forests. Some scholars asserted that it must have been

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

because it is so stated in the 5th century Sri Lankan text '' Mahavamsa''. However, the Ramayana clearly states that Ravana's Lanka was situated 100 Yojanas (roughly 1213 km or 753.72 miles) away from mainland India. 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 The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

. This island would therefore lie more than 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. 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.

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and Madagascar has also been suggested as a possibility.

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 () in height, one yojana in length, and half a yojana in breadth. The island had a large mountain range known as the Trikuta Mountain, atop which was situated Ravana's capital of Lanka, at the center of which in turn stood his citadel.

References to Lanka in the Mahabharata

Many of the references to Lanka in the Mahabharata are found in sage

Markandeya Bhargava Markandeya ( sa, मार्कण्‍डेय ) is an ancient rishi (sage) born in the clan of Bhrigu Rishi (Bhargava Brahmins Community). The Markandeya Purana especially, comprises a dialogue between Markandeya and a sage cal ...

'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).

's narration of the story begins at Book III (Varna Parva), Section 271 of the Mahabharata.

Sahadeva's expedition to South

Sahadeva, the son of

Pandu In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Pandu ( sa, पाण्डु, Pāṇḍu, pale) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities ...

, conquered the town of Sanjayanti and the country of the Pashandas and the Karanatakas utilizing his messengers alone and made all of them pay tributes to him. The hero brought under his subjection and exacted tributes from the Paundrayas ( Pandyas?) and the

Dravidas The Dravidian peoples, or Dravidians, are an Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic and Outline of culture#Cultural groups, cultural group living in South Asia who predominantly speak any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 250 mi ...

along with the Udrakeralas and the

Andhras Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and the Talavanas, the Kalingas and the Ushtrakarnikas, and also the delightful city of Atavi and that of the Yavanas. And, He has arrived at the seashore, then dispatched with great assurance messengers unto the illustrious Vibhishana, the grandson of Pulastya and the ruler of

Lanka Lanka (, ) is the name given in Hindu epics to the island fortress capital of the legendary asura king Ravana in the epics of the ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata''. The fortress was situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks known ...

(2:30).

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 Rajasuya () is a Śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion. It is ceremony that marks a consecration of a king. According to the Puranas, it refers to a great sacrifice performed by a Chakravarti - universal monarch, in which the tributary princes may ...

sacrifice.'' .. The

Vangas The family Vangidae (from ''vanga'', Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga, ''Vanga curvirostris'') comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family ...

and Angas and Paundras and Odras and

Cholas The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

and

and Cheras and Pandyas and

Mushika Mushika dynasty, also spelled Mushaka, was a minor dynastic power that held sway over the region in and around Mount Ezhi (Ezhimala (hill, Kannur), Ezhimala) in present-day North Malabar, Kerala, India. The country of the Mushikas, ruled by an a ...

and Andhakas, and the chiefs of many islands and countries on the seaboard as also of frontier states, including the rulers of the Sinhalas, the barbarous mlecchas, the natives of Lanka, and all the kings of the West by hundreds, and all the chiefs of the seacoast, and the kings of the Pahlavas and the Daradas and the various tribes of the Kiratas and Yavanas and Sakras and the Harahunas and Chinas and

Tukharas Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

and the Sindhavas and the Jagudas and the Ramathas and the Mundas and the inhabitants of the kingdom of women and the Tanganas and the

Kekayas Kekaya (Sanskrit: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-western South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The members of the Kekaya tribe were called the Kaikayas. Location The Kekayas were located between the Gāndhāra ...

and the Malavas and the inhabitants of Kasmira ... (3:51).

Other fragmentary references

*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).

References

External links

Mahabharata
of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated from Sanskrit into English by Kisari Mohan Ganguli {{Portal bar, Hinduism, India, Sri Lanka Kingdoms in the Ramayana Kingdoms in the Mahabharata Hindu mythology Mythological islands