Update to Ayodhya Dutas route map

[Ecneics]

Dear Sanskritagyas,

I have made a final update to my route map. As per some people's request I have added the shlokas from the Ayodhyakanda to each location so that people may make the correlation with the current apabhramsha and the sanskrit names given for them in the Valmiki Ramayana themselves. There are some points worth mentioning.

-The location of the tree Satyopayachana and the Ikkshumati river is very ambiguous. If you convert this map to google earth view, you can find many dry river beds all over Iran. Any of them could be the Ikkshumati river. As far as the Satyopayachana tree is concerned, I tried to find the best possible Apabhramasha of Satyopayachana. Of course, at this point my choice of their location is at best arbitrary.

-Someone asked me what was the route Maharaj Bharata took to come back to Ayodhya. According to the 71st chapter of the Ayodhyakanda, only the routes He took from the Sutlej river to Ayodhya is mentioned in detail and only His acrossing of the Sudaman area is mentioned before His arrival at the Sutlej river. So I am assuming that He simply retraced the original routes of the Dutas and after crossing Sutlej went to various Teerthas in Aryavrat and then came back to Ayodhya.

-As far as the time taken on this route is concerned, Maharaja Bharata mentions it took him 7 nights to reach Ayodhya from Kekaya. So it is reasonable to assume that since the Dutas took the most direct possible route from Ayodhya to Kekaya it means that the Dutas reached Kekaya in at least 3 nights. Also, Maharaj Bharata was coming to Ayodhya with a huge contingent of followers so He would naturally take more time.

-This is a final note for those who find the historicity of Ramayana questionable. Real values can only be supported by real, historical stories. Fiction can only support fictional values unless the fiction are deliberately tailored to support real values. Then they are not fiction anymore but allegories, for instance Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantra or the story of King Puranjana by Narad Muni in Shrimadbhagwatam.  That is why Lord Vishnu takes avatars on earth and create real, historical examples for us to follow and learn from and deliberate upon. Also, nowhere in the Valmiki Ramayana either Brahma or Narada or Valmiki even insinuate that Ramayana is fiction. People who consider Ramayana fiction should be ready to accept the values presented in it as fiction as well. And our entire cultural identity is built around a novel written thousands of years ago and we are no different than people in the West who make religion out of Harry Potter or the Jedi from Star Wars.

Now, here is the final, updated real, historical route taken by the Dutas from Ayodhya to Kekaya:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1uCoSqi8svxZ3rf6ePei2_bpw0XeKpYw&usp=sharing

Yours sincerely