Is Ceylon the Lanka mentioned in Ramayana?

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VFA-family, "Isvara (das) GGS (Vrindavana -

IN)" <Isvara.GGS@p...> wrote:

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Shyamasundara (das) ACBSP (Vedic Astrologer) (USA)

31-Mar-04 02:57 (21:57 -0500)

Vedic Astrology (Symposium hosted by Shyamasundara Das)

[1311]

 

> http://www.skyimagelab.com/hanmonbrid.html

 

On this website there is the assertion that Ceylon was Lanka of the

Ramayana. The assertion is also made using typical offensive

language of

mundane scholars regarding Sastras.

 

Today is Ramanavami on this date last year I started reading the

Ramayana

(full edition). 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.

 

Ceylon has been known by that name for at least 2500 years. It was

the name

that the Romans, Greeks and Persians knew it by (Greek traders in the

Ptolomiac and Roman empires regularly went to South India and even

onto

China via the well known trade route starting from Alexandria,down

the Nile,

portage accross to the Red Sea, down the Red Sea and then straight

accross

the Arabian Sea to modern Kerala. This is how Saint Thomas, disciple

of

Christ, got to South India and why Kerela has 20% Christians since

that

time. The many hordes of Roman dinari (gold coins) that have been

excavated

in the extreme south of India also attest to this fact.

 

In ancient times it was also called Taprobane (especially by the

Greeks) and

Serendip, which was derived from Sanskrit for Sinhala Dvipa, the

island of

Singhalese. The Singalese were orginally from the Kalinga region

(Orissa)

and invaded the island some time before 500 BC. It morphed into

Ceylon from

Serendip.

 

The English word Serendipity--which is finding something unexpected

and

useful while searching for something else entirely. For instance, the

discovery of the antibacterial properties of penicillin by Alexander

Fleming

is said to have been a serendipitious discovery--is etymologicaly

derived

from its possession by the heroes of the Persian fairy tale "The

Three

Princes of Serendip"

 

In any case by what ever name you call it modern Sri Lanka-Ceylon is

not the

Lanka of the Ramayana because it is much too far to the North East by

several hundreds of miles from the location of Lanka indicated in the

Ramayana and the astronomical Siddhantas and other Jyotish

literature.

 

yhs

 

Shyamasundara Dasa

 

www.ShyamasundaraDasa.com

 

Shyamasundar Dasa

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