Laṅkā is the golden island city that Viśvakarma built on Mount Trikūṭa, which rises from the southern ocean. At first it was the home of Kubera and the yakshas. Rāvaṇa then seized it and made it the centre of his rākshasa empire.

Its walls were strong and its wealth beyond measure. It was the place where Sītā was held, and the place of the great war between the vānara army of Bhagavān Rāma and the forces of Rāvaṇa. That war is the high point of the Rāmāyaṇa.

Before the Rāmāyaṇa: the Uttara Kāṇḍa account

The Uttara Kāṇḍa gives the fullest account of Laṅkā’s history before the events of the Rāmāyaṇa.

Viśvakarma built Laṅkā at Brahmā’s direction, on the Trikūṭa mountain (the mountain of three peaks) that rises from the southern ocean. Brahmā gave the city to Kubera, also called Vaiśravaṇa. Kubera ruled from it as his capital, with his yaksha forces and the divine Pushpaka vimāna (flying chariot).

The first seizure by rākshasas came when three brothers, Mālyavān, Sumāli and Māli, the sons of Sukeśa, drove Kubera out. They had received divine varas (boons). They ruled Laṅkā and held power over the three worlds. Bhagavān Vishṇu came down, killed Māli, and the other two fled to pātāla. Kubera came back.

Many generations later, Sumāli came up out of pātāla. He arranged for his daughter Kaikasī to bear children by the brahmarshi Viśravas. Their son was Rāvaṇa. After he did tapas (austerity), he received Brahmā’s vara that no one could harm him. He then drove Kubera out of Laṅkā a second time and took the Pushpaka vimāna as well.

This second expulsion set up the rākshasa capital that appears in the Rāmāyaṇa itself. Kubera made a new capital at Alakāpurī in the Himālaya. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 6–8, 14)

The origin of the city: the Agni Purāṇa account

The ṛshi Agastya told the history of Rāvaṇa to Rāma after the war. He spoke of the divine origin of Laṅkā. Viśvakarma, the divine builder, made the city. It was first linked with Brahmā, and then it became the realm of the yakshas under Kubera. Kubera was the son of Viśravas by his first wife Ilavilā. Kubera ruled Laṅkā as his grand capital. It stood on Trikūṭa mountain in the middle of the ocean.

Rāvaṇa was Kubera’s half-brother through the dānavī Kaikasī. Through his tapas and Brahmā’s varas he grew invincible. He drove Kubera out, took the golden city for himself, and also took the divine aerial vehicle, the Pushpaka vimāna. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 11)

Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā

Under Rāvaṇa, Laṅkā was a city of great wealth and fearful power. Hanumān went through it on his Sundara Kāṇḍa mission. He searched Rāvaṇa’s own inner rooms, the palaces of Kumbha, Kumbhakarṇa, Vibhīshaṇa and Indrajit, the drinking halls, the gardens and the streets. All of it shone with gold and precious stones.

Sītā was held in the Aśokavana, a garden of beauty turned into a prison. Rākshasīs guarded her. Their task was to threaten her and coax her by turns, to make her give in.

Hanumān found Sītā and spoke with her. He then destroyed the Aśokavana on purpose. When his tail was set on fire, he used it to burn the city of Laṅkā itself. The fire swept through the rākshasa capital as a first sign of the final destruction to come. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 9–10)

The great battle

When Rāma’s army reached the southern shore, the ocean’s deva advised that Nala, the son of Viśvakarma, could build a bridge. Nala’s setu (bridge) was made from trees, mountains and boulders that the vānara army threw into the sea. It stretched across the ocean, which was a hundred yojanas wide, to Laṅkā, and Rāma’s forces crossed over. The siege of Laṅkā began.

In the battles that followed, Rāma’s forces killed Dhūmrāksha, Akampana, Prahasta and Nikumbha. Rāma himself destroyed Kumbhakarṇa. Lakshmaṇa killed Indrajit at his yajña ground in Nikumbhilā. In the last meeting, Rāma slew Rāvaṇa with the Brahmāstra.

After the war, Rāma consecrated Vibhīshaṇa as the new king of Laṅkā. Vibhīshaṇa was the righteous brother who had taken refuge at Rāma’s feet. In this way Rāma set up rule by dharma in the city that had been the stronghold of adharma. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 10)

The city as Hanumān saw it: Sundara Kāṇḍa

The fullest picture of Laṅkā’s splendour comes from the Sundara Kāṇḍa, where Hanumān searched the city from within.

The city stood on Trikūṭa mountain, rising from the ocean. It was golden in colour, and its towers and gates shone with precious metals and gems. Walls of great height and depth ringed it. The moats below the walls were full of crocodiles, and the gates were armoured with iron.

Inside the walls were winding lanes and wide royal roads, gardens and groves, palaces layered with gold, shrines and drinking halls. The houses of each great rākshasa lord were wonders of building, each fitting the rank of its lord. They were the houses of Prahasta, Kumbhakarṇa, Indrajit and Rāvaṇa himself.

Hanumān moved through every part of the city by night in search of Sītā. He went through the inner rooms of Rāvaṇa’s own palace, where the drunken queens lay asleep. He went through the quieter home of Vibhīshaṇa and through the streets of the citadel. At last he found her in the Aśoka Vaṭikā, a garden of rare beauty that had become a prison for her. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 5–15)

Laṅkā burns: Sundara Kāṇḍa

The burning of Laṅkā by Hanumān was the most dramatic destruction the golden city had ever known. The rākshasas paraded Hanumān through the streets with a burning tail. He broke free and touched his flame to the roof of each great rākshasa palace in turn. He began with the mansion of Prahasta, then that of Mahāpārśva, then those of Vajradaṃshṭra, Indrajit and Kumbhakarṇa. Last of all he burned Rāvaṇa’s own central palace, the grandest building in the city, covered with gold and gems.

He spared only the house of Vibhīshaṇa, because he knew Vibhīshaṇa’s righteousness. The city had stood for ages as a fortress that none could break, and it burned in a single night. The devas, watching from above, wondered whether it was Agni himself or the wrath of Brahmā. Laṅkā, the fortress of adharma, lay in ruins before Rāma’s army had even gathered on the southern shore. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 54)

Laṅkā in the Yuddha Kāṇḍa

The Yuddha Kāṇḍa opens with Śrī Rāma standing on the southern shore, looking across the ocean at Laṅkā. The golden city could be seen from that distance, rising on its mountain. Samudra, the deva of the ocean, appeared before him and sent him to Nala. Nala’s divine gift allowed him to build the Rāma-setu, the causeway that brought the vānara army to the shores of Laṅkā. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapters 22–24)

When the army had crossed, the full siege of Laṅkā began. The city’s three great gates were given to the chief vānara commanders. Śrī Rāma and Sugrīva took the central gate. Aṅgada and his forces took another. The other commanders held the sides. One wave of battle after another carried the war through the outer defences of Laṅkā, into its great fields, and at last to the fights that decided the fate of the city. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 37)

The most sacred place in Laṅkā during the war was the yajña ground at Nikumbhilā, a temple grove. There Indrajit did his secret rites, which made him unseen and unbeatable. Lakshmaṇa, guided by Vibhīshaṇa, broke the yajña there and at last killed Indrajit. This took away Rāvaṇa’s last shield. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapters 80–90)

After the war, Rāvaṇa’s body received its proper antima-saṃskāra (last rites) from Vibhīshaṇa in Laṅkā. Śrī Rāma then consecrated Vibhīshaṇa as king of Laṅkā in a solemn ceremony. A rākshasa of dharma now ruled in the place of the king of adharma. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 111)

On the return journey in the Pushpaka Vimāna, Śrī Rāma showed Laṅkā to Sītā from the air and told its history. He told her how Nala had built the setu, where each great battle had been fought, where Kumbhakarṇa and Indrajit had fallen, and where Rāvaṇa was at last slain. Rāma said to Sītā that looking upon the Setubandha destroys all pāpa (sin). In this way he made both the causeway and the memory of Laṅkā a mahā-puṇya-kshetra (a place of great merit). (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapter 126)

Laṅkā in the Āraṇya Kāṇḍa

Laṅkā first enters the Āraṇya Kāṇḍa as the home of the rākshasa forces at Janasthāna. Akampana fled from the disaster at Janasthāna to Rāvaṇa’s court in Laṅkā. Śūrpaṇakhā also came there to stir Rāvaṇa up. The great court of Laṅkā became the place where the decision to carry off Sītā was made.

After the abduction, Rāvaṇa took Sītā to Laṅkā in his Pushpaka vimāna and placed her in the Aśoka Vana under the guard of rākshasīs. In Laṅkā Rāvaṇa pressed her again and again, and Sītā steadily refused. This is among the most praised acts of pātivratā-dharma (a wife’s loyalty to her husband) in the Rāmāyaṇa. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 32–33, 49–51)

Sources

Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 9–11
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 32–33, 49–51
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 1–68
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapters 22–131
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 6–8, 14