Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 1)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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  Page 307  



CHAPTER XXX.                             307

The following is the plan of the labyrinthine fort¬
ress :—
 

Door of the road leading to the castle.

Rama attacked Ravana after having crossed the Page 159.
ocean on a dyke of the length of lOO yojana, which he
had constructed from a mountain in a place called
Setuhandha, i.e. bridge of the ocean, east of Ceylon. He
fought with him and killed him, and Rama's brother
killed the brother of Ravana, as is described in the
story of Rama and Ramayana. Thereupon he broke
the dyke in ten different places by arrow-shots.

According to the Hindus, Lanka is the castle of the On the

T                     T     •                  -11               1       •               /.        island of

demons,    it is 30 yojana above the earth, i.e. So far- Lanka.
sakh.    Its length from east to west is 100 yojana; its
breadth from north to south is the same as the height
(i.e. thirty).

It is on account of Lahka and the island of Vadava¬
mukha that the Hindus consider the south as foreboding
evil.    In no work of piety do they direct themselves
  Page 307