.Very often Ramayana mentions 100 yojanas in different contexts, but 2 contexts have been taken up by our researchers. 1. From somewhere in the Vindhyas Sampati saying that Lanka was 100 yojanas away from there 2. Ram Setu was 100 yojanas long.
Taking 1 yojana = 8 miles, they say that Lanka must have been 800 miles from there and suggest that Hanuman jumped from Mahendragiri in Odisha to Sri Lanka. The other group prefers to reject Ram Setu because it is not 800 miles long. So, they choose to locate Lanka somewhere in the Indian Ocean south off India at a distance of 800 miles.
I wonder why they left out the several other 100 yojanas mentioned in Ramayana. In the first case, after saying in the 20th shloka that Lanka was 100 yojanas from where they were talking, Sampati says in the 24th shloka that one must cross 100 yojanas in the sea. By the reference to 100 yojanas in two different lengths in the same speech, it appears that it is given as a general number.
In the case of Ram Setu, Samudra Raja tells Mainaka to offer a place for Hanuman to rest after he had flown a 100 yojana so that he can cross the remaining part of the ocean easily. This gives an opinion that the distance across the ocean is more than 100 yojanas but Valmiki states that Hanuman crossed 100 yojanas only. When faced with Surasa, the demoness, in the ocean, Hanuman enlarged his body to avoid being swallowed by her. He grew up to 90 yojanas and entered her mouth to come out of it. By having grown 90 yojanas in size, Hanuman could have easily crossed the sea from there with that body, but he didn’t or couldn’t. So, it seems that the number 100 seems to have been used to denote larger size. It doesn’t represent 100 yojanas in real terms.
Several other 100 yojanas in Ramayana: Mareecha being thrown out 100 yojanas away by Rama’s arrow; the banyan tree on the way of Ravana having branches that are 100 yojanas long; Garuda carrying the 100 yojana long branch; Lanka being 100 yojana wide; many landmarks mentioned at 100 yojana distance and peaks having 100 yojana height, Vanaras claiming to cross 100 yojanas and Jambavan telling Angada that he can jump 100,000 yojanas; Hanuman claiming that he can jump 10,000 yojanas and above all Kabandha having arms that are one yojana long. The entire issue of 100 yojana problem seems to be a general statement to indicate something huge. Hundred is the maximum life span of even the Creator God, Brahma. So, 100 is the general limit to signify something big. There is no point in seriously calculating the distance as in the 2 instances stated in the beginning.
