Bastar and the Ramayana: Tracing Myth, Memory, and Landscape in India's Dandakaranya

Abstract

This research paper examines the historical and cultural connections between the Bastar region of present-day Chhattisgarh and the ancient epic Ramayana. Bastar, identified with the legendary Dandakaranya forest where Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana spent a significant portion of their exile, represents a unique convergence of mythological narrative, historical continuity, and living cultural tradition. Drawing upon textual analysis of the Valmiki Ramayana, historical records, colonial accounts, and contemporary ethnographic studies, this paper argues that Bastar's identity is fundamentally shaped by its Ramayana associations, which continue to inform the region's cultural landscape, tribal traditions, and even its contemporary political conflicts. The paper explores how the epic's depiction of Dandakaranya as a space of asceticism, exile, and ethical complexity has resonated through centuries of regional history, from ancient kingdoms to modern state formation, and how this mythological inheritance intersects with the lived realities of Bastar's indigenous communities. By examining archaeological evidence, inscriptional records, oral traditions, and literary sources, this study contributes to the understanding of how mythological geography shapes regional identity and historical consciousness in South Asia.