Note 53 — VIII.
Reading edition
"In this ancient story" says Tod, "we are made acquainted with the distant maritime wars which the princes of India carried on. Even supposing Ravana's abode to be the insular Ceylon, he must have been a very powerful prince to equip an armament sufficiently numerous to carry off from the remote kingdom of Kousula the wife of the great king of the Suryas. It is most improbable that a petty king of Ceylon could wage equal war with a potentate who held the chief dominion of India; whose father, Dosaratha drove his victorious car (ratha) over every region (desa) and whose intercourse with the countries beyond the Bramaputra is distinctly to be traced in the Ramayana."