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?

>

That surely makes sense.

 

ys, Isvara dasa.