Is Ceylon the Lanka mentioned in Ramayana?

[Guest guest]

> In the Ramayana we learn that Lanka was 100 yoganas from the

> mainland. Since a yogana is about 8 miles that would mean that it was

> about 800 miles from the mainland. Much further than current Sri Lanka aka

> Ceylon. Also the Suryasiddhanta mentions that the meridian which passes

> through Ujjain also passes through Lanka. (The Suryasiddhanta and all of

> the Jyotish literature uses the meridian passing through Ujjain as the

> reference point just as today the meridian of Greenwich is used for

> astronomical calculations and time keeping.) Ujjain is 75 degrees 47

> minutes east of Greenwich if you look south in the Indian Ocean the

> closest land would be the Maldive Islands in the Lakshadvip Sea (100,000

> Islands sea). So I would suggest that is the actual area of the original

> Lanka not Ceylon which only recently (1972) renamed itself as Sri Lanka.

> The actual Lanka is submerged and only some of its highest points are

> above the ocean. In any case the real Lanka was several hundred miles to

> the South West of current Ceylon-Sri Lanka.

 

Just a thought: since the action narrated in the Ramayana took place

about one and half million years ago isn't it quite possible that the

positions of the land masses could have changed considerably during that

period? Why would we expect to find everything exactly as it was then

especially when we read that King Mucucunda fell asleep in one yuga and on

his awakening in another was surprised to see that everything had gotten

much smaller? Wouldn't distances also get smaller?

 

Your humble servant,

Hari-sauri dasa