In another post, I had explained (link given below) the following issues:
- Panchavati, where Shri Rama, Sita and Lakshmana resided at the time of Sita’s abduction took place, was situated near river Godavari.
- And, Panchavati cannot be the place either near Nashik city, Maharashtra or Bhadrachalam, Telangana
- As Ramayana occurred lakhs of years ago, we do not know whether people at that point time used to refer even the tributaries of river Godavari also as Godavari river.
- Hence, the Panchavati of the Ramayana could be some place near one of the tributaries of river Godavari , ie., Wainganga or Indravati or Shabari.
- Kishkinda was located somewhere in the Vindhya mountain in Madhya Pradesh/Chattisgarh area, but not in Karnataka area.
Further, Ravana did not abduct Sita in Pushpaka Vimana. He came in a chariot with magical powers and after abduction, tried to move towards Lanka in that chariot. However, during the bitter battle with Jatayu, he lost his chariot.
Hence, after Jatayu got fatally injured, he used his powers to rise in the air, alongwith Sita, and travelled towards Lanka. And, he was in a hurry to reach Lanka at the earliest using a shortest possible route, to avoid fight with Shri Rama.
In view of the above situation, he did not even notice that Sita dropped her jewelry in the midst of Vanaras.
वस्त्रम् उत्सृज्य तन् मध्ये विनिक्षिप्तम् स भूषणम् || ३-५४-३
संभ्रमात् तु दशग्रीवः तत् कर्म न च बुद्ध्वान् |
On his part that Ravana has not noticed her action in whipping up her silky upper-cloth and ornaments, their bundling and stowing away at five vanara-s, owing to his own hurry.
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Present day Sri Lanka was not the Lanka of Ravana. Ravana's Lanka used to be on the equator zone, as explained in the following links.
https://sriramayanakandukuri.blogspot.com/2014/11/is-present-day-sri-lanka-was-ravanas.html
https://sriramayanakandukuri.blogspot.com/2015/08/was-ravanas-lanka-not-present-day-sri.html
https://sriramayanakandukuri.blogspot.com/2015/12/was-ravanas-lanka-present-day-sumatra.html
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Lanka was to the west of Ceylon because in the Surya Siddhanta, the prime meridian is the one going through Avanti (Ujjain). And, it explicitly states that the prime meridian went through both Avanti and through "the haunt of the rakshasa", that is, Lanka, the kingdom of the king of the rakshasas, Ravana, as well as Rohitaka and Avanti, as also the adjacent lake.
राक्षसआालयदेवौक: शैलयोर्मध्यसूत्रगा: ।
रोहीतकमवन्ती च यथा सन्निहितं सर: ॥ ६२ ॥
Situated upon the line which passes through the haunt of the demons (rakshasa) and the mountain which is the seat of the gods, are Rohitaka and Avanti, as also the adjacent lake.
(https://archive.org/details/SuryaSiddhantaTranslation/page/n97/mode/2up)
And, in the Siddhanta "Lanka" is taken to be the place with no longitude and latitude. No longitude is because it is the prime meridian and no latitude is because Lanka is on the equator.
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So keeping all this issues in view, I have inferred that the following route could be the shortest route taken by Ravana.
