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| Rameshwaram Temple, Tamilnadu |
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 In
order to attain Moksha it is believed that the visit
to Rameshwaram is mandatory. Rameshwaram is also
popularly referred to as the 'Benaras of the south'.
Rameshwaram is significant for the Hindus as a pilgrimage
to Benaras is incomplete without a Pilgrimage to
Rameshwaram. The presiding deity is the Linga Of
Sri Ranganatha, which happens to be one of the twelve
Jyotirlingas of India. Sri Lanka is at a distance
of 24 kilometers from Rameshwaram. In fact the entire
area of Rameshwaram is associated with various incidents
from the Ramayana. Rameshwaram happens to one of
the most visited pilgrim sites in India. According
to the Hindu mythology i.e. the story of Ramayana
Lord Rama performed thanksgiving rituals to Lord
Rama after the battle at Sri Lanka and his triumph
over the demon king Ravana. Owing to this Rameshwaram
attracts Vaishnavites (worshippers of Lord Vishnu)
and Saivites (worshippers of Lord Shiva) alike.
At the town's core is the Ramanathaswamy Temple,
one of the most important temples in southern India.
Rameswaram is on an island in the Gulf of Mannar,
connected to the mainland at Mandapam by rail, and
by one of India's engineering wonders, the Indira
Gandhi Bridge. Ramnathswamy temple was built in
the 17th century. Situated close to the sea on the
eastern side of the island, this temple is famous
for its 1200 gigantic granite columns. The 54 metre
tall gopuram (gate-tower), 1220 metres of magnificent
corridors and the flamboyant columns embellish and
render fame to the temple. The great temple of Sri
Ramanatha is connected by tradition with Keshi.
A pilgrimage to Kasi is not considered complete
without a pilgrimage to Rameswaram. In olden days
groups of pilgrims, many of them quite old, walked
huge distance to the two temples, taking months
and years, and some failing to survive the rigours
and dangers of such incredibly long journeys. Men
and women know this cost might be exacted of them,
but they paid it cheerfully.
To help the pilgrims walking incredible distances,
philanthropists used to construct rest houses at
intervals along the way. The last of them before
Rameswaram was Thangachimadam, a few kilometres
away on the island. Modern means of transport have
made these resthouses superfluous. But in their
time they were most useful, even vital. The Sethupathis
of Ramanathapuram, of which district Rameswaram
is an administrative part were called the guardians
of the Sethu", the bridge which, according
to tradition, was built for Sri Rama to cross over
into Sri Lanka when He set out to recover Sita.
The Rameswaram pilgrimage has long been a tradition
in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, and
has passed into folklore. Many kings of old period
themselves on having planted columns of victory
in Rameswaram. Krishna III the Rashtrakuta, in the
tenth century, the Hoysala, Vishnuvardhana, in the
twelfth. It was a king of Sri Lanka who according
to inscriptions, built the sanctum of the temple.
The temple, which has over the centuries grown into
its present gigantic dimensions, stands on the eastern
shore of an island, which is shaped like a conch,
which Lord Vishnu bears in one of His bands. No
field is ploughed or oil pressed anywhere in the
island. A magnificent railway bridge, over a kilometre
long and constructed at the beginning of the twentieth
century, connected it with the mainland. The temple
264m east to west and 200m north to south, and with
three prakaras, two big gopuras and two more unfinished
ones, faces east, a few metres from the sea. It
contains two Lingas under worship. These are innumerable
other shrines and twenty-two "tirthas",
or sacred bathing places. |
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