RAMESWARAM

We started from Madurai to Rameswaram, around 9 am after breakfast. It would be a three hour drive.

Interesting scenes flitted by.

Throughout the drive, there was not a dull moment, with songs, anecdotes from our group members. We had a coffee break after two hours.

 As we were approaching Rameswaram, it was a scenic drive, along the sea.

We drove on the Indira Gandhi road bridge, constructed pretty recently, connecting the town of Rameswaram on Pamban Island to mainland India.

Parallel to it, we could see the Pamban Bridge, a railway bridge; as luck would have it, we saw a train passing by. Opened on 24 February 1914, that was India's first sea bridge, and was the longest sea bridge in India until the opening of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in 2010.

The rail bridge is, for the most part, a conventional bridge resting on concrete piers, but has a double-leaf bascule section midway, which can be raised to let ships and barges pass through.

The day's itinerary included Dhanushkodi and Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram. Our group requested the tour managers to take us to Dr. Abdul Kalam's Memorial and to his house too. They were reluctant as they were not included in the tour's itinerary. But all of us were vociferous about it. A compromise was reached - we would briefly halt for about half an hour at Dr. Kalam's memorial, which was on the way but we would not have the time to make it to his house which was located out of the way.

We were all very excited. How could we miss the memorial to such a legend after coming all the way to Rameswaram?

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Memorial in Rameswaram, which invites tourists from all over the world, is spread over 2.11 acres of land, constructed in a record time of just 9 months on the grave-site of Dr. Kalam, where his mortal remnants were put to rest on July 27, 2015. On the second death anniversary of the missile man of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the memorial, where every stone represents Dr. Kalam's dream of a united India.

The monument mirrors a fine blend of the Indian and Mughal architecture - the entrance looks like the India Gate; the door resembles the entrance door of the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, while the main dome of the building is a replica of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The materials had been obtained from all over India. Hence, it’s a symbol of national integration.

We had to go through security check, switch off our cell phones and remove our footwear on entering the gate. We entered the memorial respectfully, admiring the garden which has the resemblance of the Mughal Gardens, with plants brought from Bangalore, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, keeping in mind the taste of Dr. Kalam. What is unbelievable is that, it had been done in just 25 days.

The bronze life size statue of Dr. Abdul Kalam installed behind the memorial looks majestic. (Picture courtesy - Rameswaram Travels).

We entered the memorial, where silence prevailed as every visitor moved around, admiring in awe, the various exhibits in the four halls reflecting the various facets of Dr. Kalam's life. The memorial not only reflects India's diversity and various cultures but also pays homage to Dr. Kalam's life. 

There are photos of the young scientist, graduating to the missile man and the first citizen of India. An impressive statue of the people's president stirred a desire to pose for a picture with the legend. But photography is strictly prohibited inside, so no luck. There are statues of Dr. Kalam with world leaders Obama and Putin, among others.The highlight is probably the Pokhran nuclear test exhibits - with replicas of rockets and missiles that the late ace scientist worked on, so as to celebrate his contribution to space science. 

There is an impressive statue of Dr. Kalam playing the musical instrument veena, another interesting passion of his. (Picture courtesy - Twitter).

Interesting photos do complete justice to his impressive contributions. The photos depicting his collapse at the dais, while delivering a speech, are heart-wrenching.

Dr. Kalam’s teachings live through this exquisite monument, which has become a landmark in the hometown of the people’s President. This tourist attraction not only ignites in all visitors, the belief in oneself but also inspires the youth to dream big. It is a must visit in Rameswaram.

We reached Daiwik Hotel, which was just ten minutes away,  and headed straight for lunch, while our luggage were getting unloaded.

We started for Dhanushkodi at 3 pm, in smaller vehicles.

Dhanushkodi is on the south-eastern tip of Pamban island, separated from mainland India by the Palk Straits. It is about 24 kilometres west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. It shares the only land border between India and Sri Lanka, which is one of the smallest in the world at 45 metres in length on a shoal in the Palk Straits. 

Until 2016, Dhanushkodi was reachable either on foot along the seashore or in jeeps. The present drive on the National Highway for the 9.5 km-long stretch was picturesque. 

Till 1964, a meter gauge railway line connected Mandapam on mainland India to Dhanushkodi, when Boat mail express ran from Chennai Egmore to Dhanushkodi. But Dhanushkodi was destroyed during the 1964 Rameswaram cyclone (on 22 Dec), when an estimated 1,800 people died in the cyclonic storm, including 115 passengers on board the Pamban-Dhanushkodi passenger train. The entire town was marooned and the Government of Madras declared Dhanushkodi as a ghost town, unfit for living.

The town did present a pathetic look , even after so many years. We could see a renovated church and a temple.

We also saw the remnants of what used to be Dhanushkodi railway station.

A 17 km railway line to Dhanushkodi from Rameswaram was sanctioned in Dec 2018.

In December 2004, around the 40th anniversary of the deadly cyclone, the sea around Dhanushkodi receded about 500 meters from the coastline, briefly exposing the submerged part of the town before massive tsunami waves struck the coast.

Our vehicles were parked after the half hour drive.

Everyone had to walk along the nice broad straight road for some 10-15 minutes to reach the tip of Dhanushkodi.

We saw the newly constructed Ashoka Pillar - a hot spot for photographs. 

We too clicked a group photo there.

Then we walked on the light peach colored powder sands and enjoyed the kiss of the waves. A couple of our friends took a dip in the waters.

We tried to look for Ram Sethu popularly known as Adam's Bridge, which lies between Dhanushkodi in India and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka but we could barely see it.

After spending half an hour there, we walked back to our vehicle - though it was sunny, it was breezy, so the walk wasn't too bad.

We drove to Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameswaram, reaching there at 4.15 pm. We left our footwear in a shop, handed our cell phones to our tour guide who was not accompanying us inside.

Our local guide met us there and briefed us about the temple, which is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples.

Ramanathaswamy Temple, located on Rameswaram island, is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva. It is one of the holiest Hindu Char Dham (four divine sites) sites comprising Badrinath, Puri, Dwarka and Rameshwaram. These four monasteries lie across the four corners of India and their attendant temples are Badrinath Temple at Badrinath in the North, Jagannath Temple at Puri in the East, Dwarakadheesh Temple at Dwarka in the West and Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram in the South. Traditionally the trip starts at the eastern end from Puri, proceeding in clockwise direction in a manner typically followed for circumambulation in Hindu temples. The temples are revered by the various spiritual traditions of Hinduism, such as Saivism and Vaishnavism. There is Chota (small) Char Dham - four abodes lying in the foothills of the Himalayas - Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

The primary deity of the temple is Ramanathaswamy (Shiva) in the form of lingam. There are two lingams inside the sanctum - Ramalingam and Vishwalingam.

According to the Ramayana, Rama, the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, prayed to the god Shiva to absolve him of the sin committed during his war against King Ravana in Sri Lanka. Rama wanted to have a large lingam to worship Shiva. He directed Hanuman, the lieutenant in his army, to bring a lingam from the Himalayas. When Hanuman was delayed in bringing the lingam, Rama built a small lingam out of the sand available in the seashore, which is believed to be the lingam in the sanctum as the main deity, Ramalingam. The second one brought by Hanuman from Kailash, is called Vishwalingam. Rama instructed that the Vishwalingam should be worshipped first since it was brought by Hanuman - the tradition continues even today.

Ramanathaswamy Temple was initially a thatched shed. The present structure was the work of many individuals spread over a number of centuries. There are huge towers (Gopurams) to the east and the west and finished gate towers to the north and south. The main tower or rajagopuram is 53 m tall. Most pillars are carved with individual compositions. 

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, measuring about 6.9 m in height. 

There are separate shrines for Ramanathaswamy and his consort goddess Parvathavardhini separated by a corridor.

There are separate shrines for the goddess Vishalakshi, the utsava images, Vishnu and Ganesha. 

There are sixty-four Tirthas / kunds (holy water bodies) in and around the island of Rameswaram, of which twenty-four are important. Bathing in these Tirthas is a major aspect of the pilgrimage to Rameswaram and is considered equivalent to penance. Twenty-two of the Tirthas are within the  temple. The number 22 indicates the 22 arrows in Rama's quiver. The first and major one is called Agni Theertham.

Some members of our group were keen in doing the religious rites bathing in the kunds (rather having a small bucket of the holy water poured on them), some were not. So we were divided into two groups, the former accompanied by our guide, who had a priest with him and the other group with our tour manager. We were in the ..... you guessed it wrong ..... in the second group.

The first group was led by the priest to each of the 22 kunds in the temple complex, for sprinkling of holy water, at the end of which they had to take bath and change, and then come for darshan.

Our group went directly for darshan. There was no queue, so we did not buy special darshan tickets for Rs. 100 / Rs. 50. First we had darshan of Ramanathaswamy, then of Goddess Parvathavardhini.... followed by the rest of the deities. We were done in less than an hour.

We sat and waited for the other group, intermittently stretching our legs to view the majestic gopuram or shopping for curios, mainly of shells, at the shops inside the temple. They returned with a look of divine satisfaction after an hour.

We had spent two hours inside. 

As we came out, we saw that the temple was illuminated and looked very beautiful.

We had coffee at one of the shops there and returned to our hotel.

The next day, we went around the hotel before breakfast. We were surprised to note that there were a number of good hotels lined up there. Interestingly all these were located close to Dr. Kalam's Memorial.

We started our drive for Thanjavur around 8 am.