Vikrant Pande and Neelesh Kulkarni's quest to retrace the trail of Rama's fabled travels during his years in exile began with their trying to locate Chitrakoot on the map and realizing that they had little idea where it might be. Curious about the places mentioned in the Ramayana, they set off on a journey of their own, following Rama's route from Ayodhya to the Dandakaranya forest and Panchavati (near Nashik) and on to Kishkindhya (close to Hampi), Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka.

Along the way they would discover how closely the narrative of the Ramayana is linked to local folklore, and how the stories of the Ramayana and the moral framework that binds them together still speaks to the people who live in the land across which Rama, Sita and Lakshman made their journey.

For the armchair traveller as well as the enthusiast for epic tales, this is a wonderful book with which to revisit the world of the Ramayana.

Autorentext

Vikrant Pande has translated twelve Marathi bestsellers into English. His translation of Girish Kuber's book Tatayan (The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation) won the prestigious Gaja Capital Best Business Book Award in 2019. His book on the history of the State Bank of India, The SBI Story: Two Centuries of Banking (2021), has been received well. His book, co-authored with Neelesh Kulkarni, In the Footsteps of Rama: Travels with the Ramayana, is a bestseller and has received excellent reviews. He has translated and written original pieces for Storytel, an audio book company. Pande is a graduate of IIM Bangalore, and a full-time writer now.