Deepali Patwadkar

What if Sugriva’s description of the world in the Ramayana is more than a poetic imagination of distant lands?

Sugriva’s Atlas follows those descriptions across geography, archaeology, geology, palaeoclimatology, flora, fauna and ancient civilizations—searching for the world that lies behind the verses.

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What You Will Discover

When Rama asks Sugriva to send his search parties in every direction, Sugriva gives them remarkably detailed descriptions of the lands, mountains, islands, rivers, peoples, animals and natural phenomena they may encounter.

Sugriva’s Atlas follows those descriptions across the globe –

In the East – The many islands, tribes and dragons right up to the Andes mountains.
To the West – The lions and rain gods right up to Alps.
To the South – Many islands including Lanka and the Antarctic.
To the North – Kailash and Uttar Kuru, to the river of gems up to Arctic.
A world at the end of last Ice-Age.

The Writing of Sugriva’s Atlas

Nilesh ji invited me to co-write this book. I was thrilled and accepted it with enthusiasm. I was already familiar with the extensive groundwork Nilesh ji had laid through his long years of research and his many public talks.

As I began studying Sugriva’s account shloka by shloka, and placing those descriptions alongside archaeology, geography, palaeoclimatology, flora, fauna, and ancient civilizations; the scope of the inquiry expanded dramatically. Each verse opened new questions and demanded fresh investigation.

What emerged were not vague parallels, but precise correspondences that included – rain gods of Taurus mountains, Mandehas of southeast Asian islands, lions of Türkiye, the ring of fire, sea of milk, comodo dragons and more!

Nilesh Oak and Deepali Patwadkar on Sugriva’s Atlas

What Scholars Say

Sugreeva’s Atlas does not simply repeat or romanticize the epic; it re-examines, re-maps, and re-imagines one of humanity’s greatest Itihasic traditions through the lens of geography, geology, and modern research. It is the product of painstaking, methodical research.

– Swami Govindadev Giri

Treasurer, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerthakshetra, Ayodhya

My heartfelt congratulations to Vishwamitra Nilesh Nilkanth Oak, whose brilliance breathed life into Sugriva’s Atlas, turning an idea into an epic of discovery.

– Bala Venkateswara Rao Sankuratri

Former Convenor, Global Encyclopaedia of the Ramayana

Lucid and rigorous, Sugriva’s Atlas invites readers to rediscover the Ramayana not as an ancient legend, but as a living atlas of human knowledge, imagination, and ecological wisdom.

– Ashwin Sanghi

Best-selling Author

The Sugriva Atlas highlights India’s historical, mythological, and cultural greatness within the global civilization. It is not only engaging to read but also deeply enlightening.

– Dnyanada Kadam

Associate Editor, ABP Majha

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