Ravana's Lanka

Book excerpt: The story of the kingdom that Ravana had ruled lay over the island like a fading, antique map. The edges of the story were frayed and there were lines disconnected by time, but the landscape it traced, exists. Demonized as he was after his death, the reign of King Ravana of Lanka, and his ancestors, the powerful Mayuranga, has long been obscured and shrouded in myth. Once, their kingdom is believed to have reached beyond the shores of the island, capturing lands across the seas—a kingdom of that magnitude was never seen again on Lanka. In a bid to shed light on this lost era, Sunela Jayewardene travelled through Sri Lanka, and listened to the storytellers and poets, researched Sri Lanka’s folklore, sifted through race and religion . . . to stitch together a history of a forgotten landscape. This remarkable, vivid book is the story Sunela learnt of King Ravana and the kingdom that he lost.