Temple Trails : Rameshwaram from Morning to Afternoon

Click on the links to read earlier parts:

Day 1- Madurai Temple
Day 2 (Morning) - Rameshwaram Temple



What a whirlwind trip it is proving to be. Meenakshi temple done and dusted yesterday and Rameshwaram temple visit today early morning, and here now I am standing at the auto stand thinking next what. Time was only 9.30 am in the morning which means I have a whole day to spend in Rameshwaram and the big question now was What to do ji ?

What to do ji ?

At this point of time I see the glum face of my daughter and then came the query from her which actually I was dreading would come 😜😜 "Dad yeh temple chase ka kuch zyaada nahi ho gaya". I smiled and said betaji yeh toh suruvat hai, aage aage dekh hota hai Kya.

As a traveler we have to balance the likes and dislikes of our co traveler too, hence I told my daughter today we will check out Danushkodi, Kalam house and Pambam bridge. But it seems that luck was not on our side.

Oh Danushkodi !I much I shall be missing you

You will ask, Why Luck! Yes sadly we were informed by the local auto driver that the Danushkodi is closed for the visit due to red alert for cyclone. Believe me I was so disappointed I cannot tell you.

Actually of all the things to visit, Danushkodi was on the top most priority. I remember speaking to one of my friend few years back(2013) when he posted those lovely pictures of the beach with beautiful skyline and some amazing clouds.

Danushkodi  Beach 

Then this abandoned church, the destroyed railway station.All had a mythical aura attached to it that I was zapped by the crude beauty of the place.My heart was set on visiting it and today this disappointment,Seriously I wanted to cry, but then as a traveler I have learned to take things in my strides.(The pictures of Danushkodi that I have posted are the ones which my friend Prathamesh had posted on fb in 2013 and was gracious enough to allow me to share them with you on my blog when he came to know that I couldn't go to Danushkodi)

Abandoned Church at Danushkodi Beach.

Abandoned Railway Station at Danushkodi

We reworked our plan and  decided to go on the local sight seeing of places which are near the Rameshwaram Temple.( The auto guys here have a standard local sightseeing package for RS 300(year 2018.)

10.00 am 

We started our trip from Ramar Padham monument atop Gandamadana Parvattham. Ramar Padham is as the name suggest means Rama's feet. One of the local told me that during the war on Ravana, Lord Rama stood atop this mountain to have first look of Lanka.

Ramar Padham Temple

 Mere ko koi Lanka Nazar nahi aayi, bus door khada TV tower zaroor nazar agaya.(its a big lie so ignore) Instead of Lanka you do get good view of Rameshwaram. The premise is not well maintained.

One of the view from the Temple

We spent few minutes soaking the scenes and the lovely blue sky around us and moved on but not before enjoying the coconut water.

Rameshwaram me aake Nariyal Pani zaroor hona ji

Then our Auto driver took us to a small temple. Where Hanuman told Lord Rama that he has seen Sita. The temple is so simple that you would easily miss out.

Hanuman Temple

Next we visited Panchamukha Anjaneyar Temple or the 5 headed Hanuman idol. ( For a moment I thought to myself, Kya Hanumanji Ravan see inspired ho gaye the kya .( One is ten headed and  one 5 headed)

Panchamukhi Hanuman

Jokes apart, there is a legend behind this Five Headed Hanuman. According to the legend, when Ahiravana a great demon and brother of Ravan, took unconscious Lord Rama and his brother Laxman to Patallok and hid them. Hanuman went in search of them and came to know that demon Ahiravana can only be killed if lamps which were put in five different directions are extinguished simultaneously.

Five face Hanuman

So Hanuman became the 5 gods in different directions, named 1-Hanuman 2- Hayagreeva 3-Narsimha 4-Garuda 5-Varahswami and extinguished all the five lamps simultaneously and thus Ahiravan was killed and Lord Rama and Laxman were saved from his clutches. This five faced statue signifies the face of those five Gods in one God Hanuman. 

Floating Stones

Next to this idol, in the same temple complex there was this temple where the floating stones are displayed. Floating stones are believed to be those stones which were used for the construction of Ram Setu or Adam Bridge to reach Lanka.

Next we visited Laxman Theertham. What I like was the bright colours of this temple.

Colourful Laxman Theertham

Its basically a small temple with the usual pond attached to it and then there is a small temple within the pond. Most of the Theertham here are exact replica of this style of construction.

Pond with the temple perched inside the pond.

Last but the least we visited Rama Theerthaam.
There too just like the above picture one pond was there with the temple inside, however Laxman Theertham was better maintained I felt. Next to the Pond separated by wall there was a hall built by the Gujarati trust.

Prayer hall by Gujarathi Trust

Next to this temple there was another old temple.

Ancient Temple next to Rama Theertham

Interestingly this temple have hundreds of idols of snakes, something which I have never seen anywhere before.

Hundreds of  snake Idols .

It was getting hot and we were done at least for first half  of the day and were now looking forward for some delicious sambhar rice for lunch.

I therefore instructed the auto driver to drop us at over hotel and later to pick us at 3 pm so that we can visit Kalam house and pambam bridge in the evening. I wanted to see sunset at Pambam bridge because I was told that the sight is absolutely amazing.

Please wait for the next part  where we shall be visiting  Dr Abdul Kalam Memorial till then happy reading.

To read about our journey from the beginning click here.

Temple Trails: Ramanathaswamy Temple-Rameshwaram | Day 2

Click here to read about Day-1


Day 2: 06th Oct 2018

The alarm on my mobile was ringing out loudly, jolting me out of my deep slumber.I wriggled out of my soft bed feeling the coldness of the AC, slowly I moved towards the table where my mobile was kept and checked the time on my mobile. I was 4:30 am. Normally I don't wake up so early in Mumbai but then I was not in Mumbai I was in the holy town of Rameshwaram and here the life starts full on at such unearthly hours.

Early Morning at Rameshwaram 

It was 5:30 am when we left our hotel to go to Rameshwaram Temple, Our hotel was at a walkable distance to the temple,so we started walking through the narrow sandy lanes, with small houses on each side and in few minutes we reached at Agni Theerthaam.

You must be wondering what is this Agni Theertham, well let me give you some info on this.

Agni theerthaam is nothing but a  small part of the sea just near the temple where the devotees take a dip in the ocean before proceeding to the Rameshwaram Temple.

Agni Theerthaam

Agni theerthaam is one of the 64 sacred baths in Rameshwaram, it is one of the most important theertham and receives a large number of tourists each day. Located on the beach side of Sri Ramanathaswamy temple, Agnitheertham is the only theertham situated outside the temple complex.

People perform religious ceremonies on the beach
 at Agni Theertham

Holy rituals such as prohithams, yangnya(yaham), tharpanam(ritual for the ancestors who were dead) are performed on the shores of Agni Theertham. Amavasya or No moon day and Poornima or Full Moon day is considered to be the most auspicious day for taking the holy Dip.

Gate at Agni Theertham

Legend and Agni Theertham:

Indian Pilgrim places are never short of myths or tales so naturally how can Agni Theertham escape from it. You see Sea and then you hear the word Agni which means Fire, Baat kuch hazam nai hui bahut confusion tha dimag me, hence I enquired with one of the local guys, so he started to narrate the tale as to how Agni Theertham got it's name,  It so happened that after winning the war over Ravana and saving Sita from the clutches of Ravana, one day Ram overheard a washerman shouting at his wife that he is no Ram that he will accept her just like Sita , who was with Ravana during her captivity. Who knows whether she is pure or not !! Hearing this Rama asked Sita to prove her purity as to whether she was touched by Ravana or not, Sita was hurt and furious but she didnt say anything. She requested Laksham the younger brother of Ram to set up a Funeral Pyre and once it was done She simply entered the flame of fire to prove her purity. 

Sita's Agni Pareeksha (Pic source internet)

She prayed to Fire God to protect her if she is pure and Sinless.Because Sita was pure, the fire didn't burn her and Fire god appeared before Lord Rama and said to Lord Rama "Your Sita is pure Please take her to Ayodhya with you". It is believed that because  Fire or Agni god touched a pure and sinless woman like Sita, thereby committed a sin,The fire god therefore, then prays to Lord Shiva to cleanse him of his sin and takes bath in this ocean waters, Thus the name Agni Theertham. 

Offering prayers at Agni Theertham

We too took the holy dip, hoping to cleanse our sins and soaked in all the energy of the morning sunrise and moved on to go to the temple.

Hired a local priest from outside the temple

As we were going to the temple we were approached by a local priest who ensured us of proper darshans and holy bathing at the 22 Wells of the temple. We paid him Rs.1500 for his service. We could have done this on our own too but just how you take a guide to understand a particular monument I felt, Let the priest be my guide today. 

View of Rameshwaram Temple from my Hotel terrace

Rameshwaram Temple :

Rameshwaram Temple is also known as Ramanathaswamy Temple.

Just like Meenakshi temple here to you are not allowed to carry camera, or mobile phones inside the temple.

Legend:

This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and there is a legend behind the construction of this Temple, accordingly to which Lord Rama while returning from Lanka prayed to Lord Shiva to absolve him from the sin of killing a Brahmin ( read Ravan here) Lord Rama wanted large lingam to pray so he instructed Humuman to get lingam from the Himalayas. However he was late in bringing the lingam so Sita quickly made a small lingam out of the sand available on the nearby seashore.

Some interesting facts:

1.It's one of the 12 jyotilingam in India.

2. It is also one of the dham out of the Chardhams, other three being Bhadrinath, Puri and Dwarka. Incidentally with the visit of Rameshwaram Im done with my Chardhams pilgrimage.

Char Dham of India (Picture source internet)

3.There are two lingams inside the sanctum - one built by Sita, from sand, residing as the main deity, Ramalingam and the one brought by Hanuman from Kailash called Vishwalingam. Lord Rama instructed that the Vishwalingam should be worshiped first since it was brought by Hanuman - the tradition continues even today.

4.There are 22 wells or Theertham inside the temple.beginning from Mahalakshmi, followed by Gayatri, Savitri, Saraswathi, Gavya, Gavyaksha, Nala, Neela, Sethumadhava, Gandhamadhava, Brahmahatya Vimochana, Shanku, Surya, Chandra, Chakra, Shiva, Sarva, Satyamrita, Gaya, Ganga, Yamuna and finally Kodi which is supposedly equivalent to a dip in the Ganges River,

5. Like most of the temples in South India this temple too has a tall boundary or compound wall admeasuring about 865 feet from east to west and 657 feet from north to south.

Colourful Corridors of the temple (Picture source internet)

6. The outer set of corridors is reputed to be the longest in the world, measuring about 6.9 m in height, 400 feet each in the east and west and about 640 feet in the north and the south.

I think I have given you enough information, but if you still want to dig in more click here to read.

Our Journey:

Now let us move on to our journey. We deposited our shoes at the shoe stand near the temple. We then proceeded to buy tickets for taking bath of 22 Wells. Luckily for us, as we had hired this local priest he bought the tickets and we were on course moving from one well to another and the priest pouring well water on us. Even though we were all wet, It was indeed amazing experience for us.

All wet after bathing in 22 wells
at Rameshwaram Temple

 Once we were done with this we changed into the dry clothes that we were carrying with us. (They allow you to carry your clothes) mind you the changing room is just a kind of enclosure with no roof, I wish at least for ladies section they should build a decent changing room.( It's sad that this temples get so many people from all over the places and yet they cannot provide for basic necessities) I changed into the lungi..oops sorry my South Indian friends corrected me,said it was not lungi but veshti.

When in South, be a south Indian !!

 We had darshan of Lord Shiva and moved out of the temple.

As photography is not allowed within the temple premises so sorry I cannot share many photos of the temple itself from inside.

We now decided to explore the local places in Rameshwaram, so please wait for my next blog on our local sightseeing of the Rameshwaram town. Till then have a great time.

PS. If you wish to read about my journey from the beginning please click here

How to Reach Rameshwaram:

By Air: Rameshwaram do not have an airport.Madurai Airport is the nearest airport(149kms)

By Rail : Rameshwaram Station is well connected with most of the major train routes.

By Bus: Rameshwaram is well connected with State Transport running regular buses, There is a regular bus services from Madurai (almost every 30 minutes)