Rameswaram - "Varanasi of the South"

Rameswaram is a town in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 50 kms from Mannar Island, Sri Lanka. Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, is connected to mainland India by the Pamban Bridge. Rameswaram is the terminus of the railway line from Chennai and Madurai. Together with Kashi, it is considered to be one of the holiest places in India to Hindus, and part of the Char Dham pilgrimages. Hence, it is a bustling pilgrim centre.

It is situated in the Gulf of Mannar at the very tip of the Indian peninsula. According to legend, this is the place from where Lord Rama built a bridge Ram Setu (also known as Adam's Bridge) across the sea to Lanka to rescue his consort Sita from her abductor Ravana. Both the Vaishnavites and Shaivites visit this pilgrimage centre which is known as the Varanasi of the south.

I travelled to Rameswaram from Madurai by bus - a travel time of 4 hrs (Rs 110) through the towns of Manamadurai, Paramakudi, Mandapam and Pamban.  The bus terminus of Rameswaram is located 3kms from the temple which is the center of the town.  Bus No.1 runs from Rameswaram bus terminus to the popular Ramanathaswamy temple (Rs 4).  

I booked a lodge very close to the Eastern entrance of the temple.  There are a number of boarding options available - as well as dharmasalas for people travelling on a tight budget.  There are rest houses with decent toilet and bath facilities for those who are covering Rameswaram in a single day.  Hotel Tamil Nadu runs a decent boarding facility very close to the sea shore which is walkable distance from the temple.  The hotels arrange sight seeing trips for groups - we decided to take a Dhanushkodi package covering Dhanushkodi (25 kms from Rameswaram) and Kothandarama temple (10 kms from Rameswaram) for Rs 1000.  A jeep was arranged for the purpose by the hotel.  

   

Dhanushkodi is situated in the South-East of Pamban. Danushkodi is about 29 kms west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The Dhanushkodi railway line running from Pamban Station was destroyed in the 1964 cyclone and a passenger train with over 100 passengers drowned in the sea.  Hindu scriptures says that at the request of Vibeeshana, brother of Ravana and ally of Rama, Rama broke the Sethu (Sethu is the Sanskrit word to denote a bridge or causeway) with one end of his bow and hence the name Dhanushkodi, Dhanush meaning Bow and Kodi meaning end. It is also said that Rama marked this spot for Sethu with one end of his famous bow. Bath in holy Sethu at the junction of the two seas (Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean) normally precedes the pilgrimage to Rameswaram. A series of rocks and islets found in a line are shown as remnants of the ancient Setu also called as Rama's Bridge.


            

Dhanushkodi has the only land border between India and Sri Lanka which is one of the smallest in the world-just 50 yards in length on a shoal in Palk Strait. Before the 1964 cyclone, Dhanushkodi was a flourishing tourist and pilgrimage town. Since Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) is just 29 kms away, there were many ferry services between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar of Ceylon, transporting travellers and goods across the sea. There were hotels, textile shops and dharmashalas catering to these pilgrims and travellers. The Railway line to Dhanushkodi–which did not touch Rameshwaram then and destroyed in the 1964 cyclone-went directly from Mandapam to Dhanushkodi. Dhanushkodi in those days had a railway station, a small railway hospital, a higher secondary school, a post office, customs and port offices etc. It was here in this island in January 1897, Swami Vivekananda after his triumphant visit to the west to attend parliament of religions held in USA in September 1893, set his foot on Indian soil from Colombo.

         


Even though there was a railway line between Pamban and Dhanushkodi and a passenger train used to ply regularly, after the storm the tracks were damaged and in course of time, were covered by sand dunes and hence had to be abandoned. One has to reach Dhanushkodi either on foot along sea shore on the sand dunes or in jeeps and in tempos of fishermen.

Regular bus facility is available only up to a certain distance from Rameshwaram via Kodhanda Ram Kovil (Temple) and many pilgrims who wish to perform religious rites at Dhanushkodi have to depend on private vans who charge anything between Rs80 and 100 per passenger depending upon the number of passengers and type of vehicle. 

  

Dhanushkodi is covered with white sands all around and the travel ends at the meeting place of the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean.  You can see the Rama Sethu at a distance.  The entire trip to the edge of the Rameswaram island takes about an hour.  

After returning from Dhanushkodi, we took a bus to reach Pamban bridge.  The Pamban Bridge is a cantilever bridge on the Palk Strait and connects Rameswaram on Pamban Island to mainland India. It refers to both the road bridge and the cantilever railway bridge, though primarily it means the latter. It was India's first sea bridge. 


  


It is the second longest sea bridge in India (after Bandra-Worli Sea Link) at a length of about 2.3 km.  


  

The beautiful hues of the sky at twilight coupled with the sea and passing of a train provided splendid captures for my camera. After spending a reasonable amount of time on the bridge, I returned back to our lodge and took rest for the night.

  

The next morning, we visited the Ramanathaswamy temple.   It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, where the three of the most revered Nayanars, Appar, Sundarar and Tirugnana Sambandar have glorified the temple with their songs. The temple was built during the 12th century and widely expanded during the Nayak period in the late 16th century. The temple has the longest corridor among all Hindu temples in India. The Temple is also one of the 12 Jyothirlinga temples, where Shiva is worshipped in the form of a Jyotirlingam meaning "pillar of light".  

  

The story goes that after Rama defeated Ravana, he asked Brahma for a way to wash away his sin of killing Ravana.   Brahma suggested Rama to create a temple for Shiva and worship him.  Sita playfully created a shivalinga out of sand while Rama had already sent Hanuman to Kailash to procure shivalinga.  Brahma was impressed with the creation of Sita and suggested Rama to worship the sand shivalinga.  When Hanuman returned with two shivalingas from Kailash, Rama asked Hanuman to remove the sand shivalinga and replace it with one of the shivalingas he brought from Kailash.  Hanuman tried to remove the sand shivalinga - but it refused to budge.  So Rama asked Hanuman to place one of the shivalingas to the right of the sand shivalingas.  Today, the shivalinga of Kasi Viswanathar to the right of Ramanathaswamy has to be worshipped before takes blessings of Ramanathaswamy.  The other shivalinga can be found next to Hanuman's shrine in the temple.

We attended the spatika linga abhishekam - a unique event that happens everyday from 5 AM to 6 AM.  You need to buy tickets for Rs 50 to get darshan of this abhishekam.  

Like all ancient temples in South India, there is a high compound wall on all four sides of the temple premises measuring about 865 feet from east to west and 657 feet from north to south with huge towers at the east and west and finished gate towers on the north and south. The temple has striking long corridors in its interior, running between huge colonnades on platforms above five feet high.  

  

The outer set of corridors is reputed to be the longest in the world being about 6.9 m height, 400 feet in each in the east and west and about 640 feet in north and south and inner corridors are about 224 feet in east and west and about 352 feet each in north and south. Their width varies from 15.5 feet to 17 feet in the east and west about 172 feet on the north and south with width varying 14.5 feet to 17 feet. The total length of those corridors is thus 3850 feet. There are about 1212 pillars in the outer corridor. Their height is about 30 feet from the floor to the center of the roof. The main tower or rajagopuram is 53 m tall. Most pillars are carved with individual composition.

There are sixty-four Theerthams (holy water bodies) in and around the island of Rameswaram.  According to Skānda Purāṇa, twenty-four of them are important.  Bathing in these Tīrthas is a major aspect of the pilgrimage to Rameswaram and is considered equivalent to penance. Twenty-two of the Tīrthas are within the Ramanathaswamy Temple.  The number 22 indicates the 22 arrows in Rama's quiver.  The first and major one is called Agni Theertham, the sea (Bay of Bengal).  You need to pick up tickets worth Rs 25 to take bath in the 22 theerthams within the temple premises - this includes service charge for the people who pull out water from these wells for bathing.  You are not allowed to enter the shrine of Ramanathaswamy in wet clothes and there are change rooms available within the temple premises.  

  

After visiting the temple, we took an auto to visit Ramar Paadam (Rama's footprint).  It is a temple on a small hillock where it was believed that Rama landed immediately after winning Ravana in Lanka.  From here, we could see the entire town of Rameswaram.  

     


We returned to the temple area to have lunch and proceeded to the railway station which is around 3kms from the temple.  We took the Rameswaram-Chennai train that left at 5 PM and reached Chennai at 6 15 AM the next morning.  We captured some more magical moments at the Pamban bridge - this time we were inside the train as we looked out at the road bridge.  This capped off a worthy trip through the relics of Dhanushkodi and the ethereal Rameswaram.