Inscriptional evidence for Rāma Setu

 Is there any inscriptional evidence for the location of Rāma Setu across India and Sri Lanka?

Yes. An important piece of epigraphic evidence comes from the Tiruvālaṅgāḍu copper plates of Rājendra Chola I (11th century CE).

While describing the conquest of Laṅkā by his father, Rājarāja Chola I (Arulmoḻivarman), the inscription compares the Chola king's naval crossing with Rāma's legendary crossing of the sea. The inscription says that Rāma, Lord of the Raghus, constructed a bridge across the ocean with the help of the valiant Vānaras and, after crossing it, slew the king of Laṅkā (Rāvaṇa). Rājarāja, by contrast, crossed the ocean in ships and conquered Laṅkā.

What is significant here? The inscription explicitly connects Rāma with Rāma Setu, the ocean crossing and Laṅkā. An objection may be raised: “But this is only an 11th-century inscription. How can it be evidence for the Rāmāyaṇa geography?” The answer is simple: an inscription need not be contemporary with the event described to constitute evidence for the geographical tradition preserved about that event. Its value here is precisely as an independent epigraphic witness to the tradition. Moreover, the Cholas were not geographically unfamiliar with Laṅkā. They had actually conducted naval campaigns there. Thus, when a Chola inscription deliberately compares Rājarāja's voyage to Laṅkā on the same stretch of water crossed by Rāma by building the Setu, it provides significant epigraphic evidence for the identification of Rāmāyaṇa Laṅkā in Sri Lanka and for the remembered location of the Setu across the intervening sea. This is inscriptional corroboration of the geographical tradition. #Ramayana_5114BCE