Dandakaranya

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dandakaranya is a mythological region roughly equivalent to the Bastar District in the centre east part of India. It covers about 35,600 square miles (92,200 km²) of land, which includes the Abujhmar Hills in the west. Dandakaranya borders the Eastern Ghats in the east, including parts of the Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh states. It spans about 200 miles (320 km) from north to south and about 300 miles (480 km) from east to west.^[1]

Dandakaranya is an important place in many Indian mythology tales. The Dandakaranya zone was the location of the turning point in the Ramayana, a famous Sanskrit epic. The plot for the divine objectives of the Hindu Trinity to uproot the rakshasas from the land was formulated here.

Indian mythology says that Lord Rama spent his precious 13 years in this region until the abduction of the Goddess Sita.

[edit] References