Editing Adam's Bridge (section)

=== Hinduism ===
{{Main|Rama Setu (Ramayana)|Sethubandhanam}}
{{See also|Lanka}}
[[File:Vintage 40'S Print BHARAT MEETS RAMA Brijbasi.jpg|thumb|alt=A 20th-century painting depicting a scene from Ramayana, wherein monkeys are shown building a bridge to Lanka|A 20th-century painting depicting a scene from Ramayana, wherein [[vanara]]s are shown building a bridge to Lanka.]]
The ancient Sanskrit epic ''[[Ramayana]],'' in the ''Yuddhakanda,'' mentions [[Rama Setu (Ramayana)|a bridge]] constructed by the god [[Rama]] with aid from an army of [[Vanara]]s (monkeys or forest-dwellers) to reach the island [[Lanka]] and rescue his wife Sita from Ravana.

In popular belief, Lanka is equated to present-day Sri Lanka.<ref name=":1" /> However, such a correspondence is not explicit in the Ramayana and a few verses can even be held to be against such an identification;<ref name="Ramayana_VOLI">{{Cite book |title=The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1984 |isbn= |editor-last=Goldman |editor-first=Robert P. |series=Princeton Library of Asian Translations |volume=I: Bālakāṇḍa |pages=23–30 |language=en |translator-last=Goldman |translator-first=Robert P.}}</ref> some Sanskrit sources of the first millennium emphasise on the distinction.<ref name=":1" /> [[Robert P. Goldman]] — who edited the Princeton translation of the epic into English — characterises most of the Ramayana, including the ''Lanka Kanda'', as "kind of [an] elaborate fairy tale" ''by design''; attempts to probe into its historicity were misguided.<ref name="Ramayana_VOLI" />{{efn|Goldman and other scholars emphasise on the abrupt change of the narrative from Book Two (Ayodhyakanda) to Book Three (Aranyakanda) and onwards — that deals with Rama's efforts to bring back Sita and subsequent exploits in Lanka — from "pseudo-historical" to the "totally fantasied".<ref name="Ramayana_VOLI"/> Goldman cautions against attempts to recover any historical stratum from these books; he reiterates Jacobi's opinion that for the intended audience of the text, South of the Gangetic Plains was terra incognita where the hero can be made to cross over into the supernatural realm.<ref name="Ramayana_VOLI"/> He concludes: "As to the kingdoms of the demons and the monkeys, it is our conviction that they never existed anywhere except in the mind of the poets and more importantly, in the hearts of the countless millions [] who have been charmed and deeply moved by this strange work."<ref name="Ramayana_VOLI"/>}} John Brockington, noted for his scholarship on Hindu epics, concurs.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Rāma the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Rāmāyaṇa |publisher=Penguin |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-14-196029-6 |location=London |pages=9 |language=en |translator-last=Brockington |translator-first=John |quote=Many attempts have been made to identify Lankā and Kiskindhā, the vānaras’ city, with real sites on mainland India, and especially to equate Rāvana’s kingdom with the island in modern times renamed Śrī Lanka, but there is nothing in the first stage of the text to indicate that they are anything more than the product of the storytellers’ imaginations, with little help even from travellers’ tales. |translator-last2=Brockington |translator-first2=Mary}}</ref>

In extant historical sources, the equation between the two islands appears for the first time only in the Kasakudi Copper Plates of [[Nandivarman II]] (r. late-8th century) pertaining to the conquest of Sri Lanka by one of his ancestors; as Ramayana took a life of its own under the succeeding Cholas, the identification profferred, justifying their imperial ambitions to invade the island.<ref name=":1" /> The link would then be co-opted by the [[Aryacakravarti dynasty]] of Jaffna in presenting themselves as the guardians of the bridge.<ref name=":1" /> Nonetheless, two reputed medieval commentaries on the Ramayana — Ramanujiya (drafted c. 1500 by Ramanuja) and Tattvadipika (drafted c. 1550 by Mahesvaratirtha) — continued to make a distinction between Lanka and Sri Lanka.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-691-06662-0 |editor-last=Goldman |editor-first=Robert P. |series=Princeton Library of Asian Translations |volume=V: Sundarakāṇḍa |pages=359 |language=en |translator-last=Goldman |translator-first=Sally J. |translator-last2=Goldman}}</ref>