There is 200 meters wide circular shaped lake at location 24.949759°,83.172870° and Rajdari waterfall is just half a kilometer away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_2UrIrmvkI The rocks surrounding this Rajdari waterfall looks like "Jata" of Shankara.
I think this circular shaped lake is on rocky terrain. If it is so, then it cannot be human-made and flow of water doesn't form circular shapes. So, I am inclined to think that this circular shaped lake is meteorite impact crater from the fragment of
the same meteorite which struck at Surha Tal location. This another impact near this Rajdari "Jata waterfall" may have originated the myth of Ganga falling from sky, striking Jata of Shankara and then following King Bhagiratha up to Surha Tal impact
crater. I guess, this is Panchavati area where Valmiki was giving description of meteorite fall and solar eclipse during Rama-Khara war (Ramayana 3-23). Total Solar Eclipse of 04 Oct 954 BC had passed over Bharhut, but certainly 80-90% partial solar
eclipse was visible from this Panchvati area. Also, I think that Valmiki has named "Jatayu" bird after this 'Jata waterfall". Valmiki describes Panchavati to be infected by serpents (3-15-1). Snakes are associated with Shankara. So I am inclined to
connect this Rajdari area with Panchvati and I believe that it is Godavari river.
The Lanka was located at Chunar Fort (25.122705°,82.877348°). I will have to give very long explanation for that, but I will try to be short.
In ancient time, directions were not defined after geomagnetic poles of earth. In Ramayana, "Dakshin" means "Region of Daksha" and I think it was in the direction in which Sun sets on 21 December. It somewhat corresponds to the present day south-west
direction. But even this "Daksha direction" has limit because it is region specific. So when we reach this region of Daksha or Dakshin, we become rather directionless. For example, at Chandigarh, you can say that you are going to search X in Delhi
direction. You are moving south, that's right. But now you have reached Agra and you are saying that you are again going to search X in Delhi direction, then you are actually moving in North direction. The reader who don't know location of Delhi will
keep assuming that you are still moving southward. This is my understanding of directions mentioned in the ancient texts. Now I am giving below evidence from Ramayana itself.
In his UDICHIM-side search of Sita, Valmiki specifically mentions that mansion of demon Maya is in the UDICHIM direction (4-43-30). Translators translate UDICHIM as NORTH. Hanumana was searching in "DAKSHIN' region, but somehow, he enters in 'Riksh Bilam
of Demon Maya" which is actually in the UDICHIM direction. Hanumana and his search party enters this Riksh Bilam at 25.078865°, 82.855243°. They exits this 100 meter wide and some 1.5 Km long Riksh Bilam ravine at 25.088886°,82.851084° and
Swayamprabha tells them that they are still in Vindhya range and it is PrasRavana hill.(4-52-31b, 32) Hanumana sees 'Southern Samudra' in front of him which is actually Southern bank of Ganga river. Valmiki is calling it Sam + Rudra = Samudra (in front
of Rudra) because, as mentioned above, abode of Rudra (Shiva, Shankara) is just nearby. In 4-53-3, Valmiki again tells that Hanumana is at the foothills of Vindhya. In 4-53-1, Valmiki tells us that Lanka is at Varuna Aalayam (Abode of Varuna). Abode of
Gods are fixed in ancient texts. Nearby city Varanasi is named after this Abode of Varuna. In 6-123-18, Rama tells Sita that Mainaka mountain (25.095476°,82.875958°) is just near the Lanka.
All puranas state that Mainaka mountain is in Hema-alaya. Historians have confused this Hema-alaya or Hima-alaya also. The misspelling of Hema i.e Hima is translated as "white" and because of this ONLY ONE word "Hima", historians have migrated Shiva and
Kubera to present day Himalaya. There is absolutely nothing in Tirtha Yatra Parva of Mahabharata which can indicate that Pandavas were actually in the Himalaya. In Mahabharata book 3, chapter 139 of Tirtha Yatra Parva, Lomasa and Pandavas are about to
ascend “white rock” mt Mandara, the abode of Kubera. Lomasa specifically states that “Here Agni blazeth forth without intermission”. That means it is very hot region. But still historians and religious people have dared to migrate Kubera and
Shiva to present day Himalaya in exactly opposite situation. By Hema-alaya or Hima-alaya, Puranas means this reddish or golden colored barren land around abode of demon Maya and Hema. Mountain Kailas is located at 25.040358° 82.823373° in this Hema-
alaya in Vindhya range.
After exiting Riksh bilam at 25.088886°,82.851084°, Hanumana sees Samudra (Ganga) in front of his eyes, but he can't see Chunar Fort which is 4 Km away from this spot. So, much drama happens. Another bird 'Sampati' arrives. He tells all the soldiers of
Hanumana to move in "abhijit abhimukham disham' (4-63-15). I guess, Abhijit means 'north-east'. So Hanumana moves in north-east direction, travels for 4 Km and sees Chunar Fort in SOUTHERN BANK OF GANGA (SAMUDRA). You can still see Chunar Fort located on
southern bank of Ganga, still little in the water of Ganga. In Ramayana period, this Chunar Fort (Lanka) was surrounded by the water of Ganga (Samudra). You can see Mountain Mahendra or isolated Mahendra hill of Vindhya Range at 25.109744°, 82.868637°.
Hanumana starts swimming from this location towards Chunar Fort (Lanka). It is 1100 meters long swimming, but there is another hill in the middle of this swimming at 25.114253°,82.873113°. Valmiki has mentioned this hill in 5-1 as 'Samudra requesting
Mt Mainaka to raise itself in the Ocean so that Hanumana can rest on it'.
Rama lands at the base of Chunar Fort somewhere at 25.119786°,82.876080°. Here again in 6-23 he talks about same apocalyptic description of “solar eclipse” and “From the blazing sun, balls of fire fall”. In ancient texts, they call this barren
hills of Vindhya around 25.040303°,82.823359°near Chunar as abode of Nar, Narayana, Vishnu, Shiva, Kubera etc. Because above these hills they saw “light” of meteorite fall. I think small fragment of meteorite fell in the Ganga near Chunar Fort
about which Rama is talking in 6-23, but I am not finding any impact crater. Probably Ganga has washed out it traces. The falling meteorite fragments travelled in north-east direction from above these hills and main chunk of meteorite struck at Surha Tal
location, other one small fragment struck near Rajdari waterfall.
In Ramayana, Yojana is defined as 1/5th of circumference of the Surha Tal impact crater. It comes out to be around 10 Km. Please remember that in whole Ramayana, Valmiki is testing arithmetic skill and rationality of students in his Ashram. When he types
'shat yojana', you are supposed to take it as 'hundredth part of yojana', not '100 yojana'. When he types ‘koti sahastra vannaras’, he means koti/sahastra i.e 10,000 people (nara) living in jungle (vana). And surely, Valmiki has not measured width of
samudra or height of mountains and hills, so he is giving just approximate measurements.
Valmiki is writing a novel which is packed with history, geography, arithmetic, drama etc. He has also included fiction so that people like his work and it survives for many centuries, but basically, he is writing a mystery novel. He deliberately doesn’
t give directions and distance most of the time in his novel. But he is using names of places, rivers, characters associated with the history of that region so that we can figure out the location of Rama. And he reveals this mystery of locations in the
end.
After beating up Ravana, Rama steps in Pushpaka boat at Chunar Fort. Vindhya range can be seen from a boat in Ganga (Sam+Rudra=Samudra). Rama shows Sita most of the locations of Ramayana situated just on the outskirt of visible Vindhya range.(6-123)
Kishkindha (25.085184°,82.894988°), Rishyamukha/Pampa lake/Pampa river (25.051558°,82.929424°), Panchvati (24.993427°,83.172468°), Chitrakuta (25.001311°,83.232173°). Sage Sutikshana, Sharabhanga, Atri were located on the bank of Ganga. Yamuna (
Karmanasa) river has changed its course, so it is difficult to locate hermitage of Bhardwaja and I guess Shringaberpur was located somewhere around Mohammadabad (25.616960° 83.753425°). But Rama doesn't show Sita hermitage of Agastya from his Pushpaka
boat in Ganga because Agastya's hermitage was rather deep in Vindhya range. That was the only time Rama had travelled to deep forest and Valmiki was clever enough to avoid mention of Agastya during this 'site-seeing tour'.
Samudra, Sagara, Mandakini, Jahnvi, Saraswati, Bhagirathi, Tri-Path-Gama are different names of same Ganga river. They had habit of naming Ganga after their favorite Sages situated on the bank of Ganga. Ganga river quickly changes course in matter of
decades or even years. So they kept writing that “Saraswati disappeared, reappeared, turned eastward, turned westward etc’. The Ganga plain from Chunar to Ballia and the Vindhya range facing Ganga, is abode of Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Buddha.
I think Bala Kanda of Ramayana was the last addition to this Saga in 1st or 2nd century BC and by that time, they had reached kausambi near Allahabad. It doesn’t mean that nobody was settled outside this region. It just means that Chunar-Ballia region
was the Capital of literary civilization of Bharata and those Brahmins in this region didn’t bother to travel outside this region to get info about outside world and write about it. This literary civilization started with the “Aum” sound of the
meteorite impact. Otherwise, there would have been no written history of India.
Rama sails his boat along the flow of Ganga, meets Bhardwaja at Yamuna river (present day Karmanasa river). Then he turns his boat near Ballia and enters in Katehar nala or Katehar river. After sailing along the Katehar river, he reaches Ayodhya (Sahodih,
25.822500°,84.214490°), steps out of boat and lands in Ayodhya.
Valmiki has kept all locations of Rama around the line of meteorite fall. Chunar to Surha Tal was sacred route for them and Vyasa has also kept Pandavas around this line during his Tirtha Yatra Parva.
So I believe that this Katehar Nala or Katehar River is not only human-made, but it was also used for navigation. And the additional impact crater at location 24.949759°, 83.172870° makes my belief stronger that the meteorite had indeed struck at Surha
Tal location. I think after careful scanning of Chunar-Surha Tal region, few more small meteorite impact craters will be found.
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