Ravana’s Lanka: The landscape of a lost kingdom
Author: Sunela Jayewardene
Publisher: Penguin Vintage
Pages: 336
Price: Rs 499
The Ramayana needs little introduction to anyone in India. But unlike its hero Rama, who has aged remarkably well and whose image has become a symbol of resurgent nationalism in the country, the defeated king of Lanka, Ravana, has paled into a cardboard version of himself. Demonic and devilish, his only place in the popular imagination in India is as a flaming effigy crumbling in the fire.
There is definitely much more to the mythical king than his ten heads and his