Dandakaranya

A particular forest (aranya) in the
Ramayana, the earlier of the two great
Indian epics. This is where the god
Rama, the epic’s protagonist; his wife
Sita; and his brother Lakshmana live
during the latter part of their fourteen
years in exile, in their ashram (abode) in
the village of Panchavati. Many of the
epic’s pivotal events take place in this
forest: Rama and Lakshmana’s humiliation and mutilation of the demoness
Shurpanakha, their destruction of the
demon army led by her brothers Khara
and Dushana, and Sita’s abduction
by Shurpanakha’s third brother
Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka. The
Dandaka forest’s actual location is
uncertain, since many of the events in
the Ramayana cannot be set in any
particular place. One traditional
location for Panchavati, however, is just
outside of the city of Nasik in the state
of Maharashtra.