Lanka
Ravana's golden island city in the Ramayana, where the flying chariot Pushpaka was kept and Sita was held captive.
- Appears in
- Valmiki's Ramayana; Puranas
- Ruler
- Ravana, king of the rakshasas
- Built by
- Vishvakarma, divine architect (in tradition)
- Identified with
- Usually Sri Lanka; other locations proposed
- Key events
- Sita held captive; burned by Hanuman
What is Lanka known for?
Lanka is the island capital of Ravana, the ten-headed king of the rakshasas, in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana. Tradition says it was built by Vishvakarma, the architect of the gods, and held by Ravana's half-brother Kubera, god of wealth, until Ravana seized it along with Kubera's flying chariot, the Pushpaka.
In the epic, Ravana carries Sita to Lanka. The monkey hero Hanuman leaps across the sea to find her, sees the Pushpaka in Ravana's palace and sets the city on fire. Rama's army builds a bridge to the island, defeats Ravana, and flies home to Ayodhya in the Pushpaka.
Lanka is usually identified with Sri Lanka, which adopted the ancient name officially in 1972, and Pali chronicles call the island Lanka. Some scholars have proposed other locations, and Indian astronomical texts used Lanka as the point where their prime meridian met the equator. The city as described in the epic is a work of poetry, not a mapped site.
Lanka is where the Pushpaka Vimana rested after Ravana took it from Kubera.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holePushpaka Vimana
- PersonHanuman
- PersonRama
- PersonRavana
- PersonSita
- PersonVibhishana
- PlaceAyodhya
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Lanka'Reference
- Valmiki, Ramayana, trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith (sacred-texts.com)Primary text
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.