Where Is Valmiki’s Lanka?

A Scriptural, Archeological, Architectural, and Epigraphical Inquiry

yojanānāṃ śataṃ śrīmāṃstīrtvāpyuttamavikramaḥ,
aniśvasan kapistatra na glānimadhigacchati.
“The mighty Hanuman crossed the inviolable sea, stood comfortably on the peak of Trikuta mountain and looked at Lanka.” (trans. Kataka)

With this, Valmiki establishes Lanka as a mystical island across the raging sea.¹² Elsewhere in his work, he offers vivid elaborations of a city of skyscrapers, gold, blue lotuses, and formidable rakshasas. Lanka is the Shangri-La reachable only by those with special divine endowments. Today, we know it as the island nation of Sri Lanka. This identification is a culmination of centuries of reinforcement and finds strong support in a long list of material finds. The island is littered with sites mentioned in the epic. From the cave where Ravana meditated, to the enormous plateau on top of which sat his palace, to the spot where Sita was held captive, an entire catalog of Ramayana sites has attracted pilgrims from all over the Indian subcontinent and beyond for centuries. There’s even a giant footprint believed to be of Hanuman.

It’s strange, then, that there should even be a debate of any kind on the subject. That Lanka is Sri Lanka has remained part of mainstream scholarship for ages. What’s there to debate?

Turns out, a lot. There’s a growing body of academicians who question the very fundamentals of this association. They suggest removing the entire island nation from the equation and confining the epic’s entire geography to the Indian mainland. In this view, Lanka is located not in Sri Lanka but in India. Where in India? That depends on who we ask. Some suggest the vicinity of Delhi, others go with the Chhotanagpur plateaus in the east. Are they right? Does their position hold water against available scriptural and archeological data? That’s what we intend to explore in this article. If you wish to follow a similar exercise for Ayodhya, we’ve already done that here.

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Before we get down to the brass tacks, let’s quickly outline our approach. The pieces we have at our disposal are literary, folkloric, geographical, ecological, and linguistic. We will examine them all. We will also examine theories from not just Hindu but also Buddhist works for a holistic understanding. The story of Ramayana, although originally Indian, has traveled far beyond the subcontinent over centuries. Associated folklores and traditions have emerged in places as far out as Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. We will consider some of those too. And, of course, as the practice here goes, both hypotheses—that Lanka is Sri Lanka and Lanka isn’t Sri Lanka—shall receive their due limelight. One last thing to note before we proceed, and keep in mind throughout the investigation, is that the subject at hand is of a highly political nature and must be seen as such at all times. When a religious topic acquires a political character, every piece of evidence on either side of the argument becomes suspect of ideological biases. In the case of Lanka, there’s a clear divide of precisely that nature—The Hindu Right tends to place it in Sri Lanka, the Left in India, if at all. Every theorist in this domain is likely, although not necessarily, an ideologue. So, keep that in mind as we go through every piece of evidence advanced in support of either theory.