31 July 2010

Rameswaram

We spent Day 2 at Rameswaram. 

Started for Dhanushkodi, about 25km from Rameswaram at 730 in the morning. There are jeeps plying the route as there are no roads and we need to drive through sandy track. It takes about an hour to reach Dhanushkodi. On the way, you can see old Railway station, Postoffice  destroyed in the 1964 cyclone. The drive is beautiful. surrounded by calm, blue sea on three sides. The beach is clean, no crowds, a good place for a bath. When compared to Agni Theertham, just in front of the Ramanathaswamy temple, this is heaven. We reached Rameswaram at 1100.

The story of Rameswaram is well known - Rama wanted to do pooja for Siva, asked Hanuman to bring an idol of Siva. As Hanuman took some time to bring the idol. Seetha made a Lingam out of beach sand which Rama worshipped. This is the present Ramanatha Swamy. The idol Hanuman brought is Viswanathar, the shrine next to Ramanathar.  

Appar, in his padhigam   mentions the temple is built by Vishnu (Maal seida Kovil) 10 times and that  Vishnu built this after destroying destruction of Ravanan & Company.

Sambandar has done two padigams. He is even more specific in his Ramayana references  -  Rama killed the Ten Headed one who took Vaidehi away by stealth, etc

Rameswaram is also a Jyotirlinga Kshetram, the only one in Tamil Nadu and one of the two in South India, other being Srisailam. Lord Siva gave Adi Sankarar 12 Lingams. Adi Sankarar established these lingams all over India and these are Jyotir Linga Kshetrams. Jyotir Linga sannidhi is the north eastern side of the main sannidhi.
Dikshitar's Ramanatham Bhajeham is of course very famous. A coincidence - the song is in Pantuvarali & the Sundarar Padhigam is in Sadhari, the pann name for Pantuvarali.

Rameswaram's third praharam is the longest prakaram in the world, if there are such rankings for prakarams. Nandi is also huge, like in Thiruvavaduthurai, made of presumably brick & lime & not granite like in Thanjavur.
The whole is temple is slushy as people take bath in the 24 or so theerthams (wells) and move around in the temple in hoards completely drenched. We could see many groups of foreigners, apparently complete believers in Sanatana Dharma, chanting names with closed eyes, as someone lowers a small bucket tied to a rope in the wells, pulls it up and pours it over the heads.

Rameswaram, inspite of being a big pilgrimage destination, does not have good quality hotels. It has many chatrams, providing cheap accommodation. It also has many small hotels, not of any great quality.  The town is dirty and noisy with the shops blaring out all sorts of songs.

Photos here.