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.

Rameshwar Temple | Chaul

Sunday was around the corner,so naturally I had to plan something to satisfy my wanderlust. Thus I planned a day trip to visit Rameshwar Temple at Chaul, Kulaba Fort Alibag, and Revdanda Fort near Revdanda beach.

During my last visit to Vasai Fort (click here to read my blog on vasai Fort) where I was accompanied by my friend Femina, She had told me that if I plan anything in near future then she would be interested in joining me for my next trip. Hence I called her up and she agreed to join me.

We took 5;38 am churchgate bound local train and it was 6,09 am when we reached Churchgate station. In order to reach Alibag one has to catch ferry from Gateway of India to Mandwa and from Mandwa there is a connecting bus till Alibag. We quickly started to walk down till gateway of India. A 15 -20 minutes of early morning brisk walk we were at Gateway of India

We bought the Ferry tickets which cost us Rs 120 per person. As it was very early in the morning so there was hardly anyone at Gateway of India. we took advantage of this and clicked few pictures and then moved on to the ferry section. There were hardly few people before us so we were soon whisked away in the ferry where we ensured that we get the top deck.

Eyeing the Top Deck of Ferry launch

The advantage of the top deck is that one can get fantastic view of morning sunrise with the blurring view of the Taj hotel and the majestic Gateway of India as the Ferry launch leaves the shores.The ferry launch  left by 6.54 am and we were on our way. The coolness and the calmness of the morning is always amazing and imagine if you throw in the sea to compliment it the whole atmosphere becomes electrifying.

The blurring Taj and Gateway of India as we leave the shores

Our ferry launch was moving forward cutting the sea, The music of Bangra rap was been played out and across the horizon the sun was beginning to make its presence felt. The view was simply mesmerizing. One can see the golden sheen on the waves of the sea.

Golden Glow of the morning

Its the kind of moment when you want everything to stop. As were launch moved we were surprised by our morning guest and yes they were none other than the lovely Seagull flapping their wings and encouraging us to give them food.

Seagulls chasing us

The time simply passed away watching the beauty of the morning, that I didn't realize that our one hour plus journey is coming to an end and we have reached the Mandwa Jetty. We moved from the jetty to catch the connecting bus to Alibag. This bus ride lasted for 45 minutes so I thought of having a cat nap till we reach Alibag. 

Upon reaching Alibag , we went to auto stand where sharing autos go to revdanda. Luckily for us as one Sitara or big auto was standing at the auto stand and we were on our way to Rameshwar Temple. Again an auto ride of 20 minutes and we were at Rameshwar Temple. One can also take ST bus to Revdanda and get down at Chaul Naka to reach this temple.

First look of Rameshwar Temple

Rameshwar Temple is an ancient temple located in Chaul in Revdanda Maharashtra. Its an ancient temple of Lord shiva. I was given to understand that Chaul region is known for many temples.

Old temple but rebuilt again 

There are 365 temples in this region, One temple for one day I presume. This temple as per the local villager was built little in over a day by pandavas, however they couldn't complete it  otherwise according to him it would be only temple like Kashi which was built in a day but they couldn’t complete it. Later, Kanhoji Angre, A Maratha Navy Admiral completed the remaining work.

Ruins behind the temple

One must visit an elaborate entombment behind the temple. It is said that the memorial belongs to one of the Angres.(Though I didn't find any placard or sign saying so) There was only ASI board proclaiming that its a protected heritage site.

Ruins behind the temple

Rameshwar temple just like all Shiva Temples has Nandi in front of the main temple. 

Nandi in front of the temple

The temple complex is spread over a large acre of land. The temple dome stands 7.62 m tall. A huge pond is seen in front of the temple which is known as Pokhran.

Pokhran Pond

 There are two tall Deep jyoti stamb in front of the Temple. ( Its a tall pillar on which small lamps are kept and it adds to the illumination of the temple) 

Deep Stamb

Just as we enter the temple there is a large prayer hall supported by the colourful wooden pillars.

Colourful Pillars

Next to the prayer hall is another hall having arched pillars and  a shiviling in the center enclosed room.

Shivling in an enclosed room

and on the left side of the shivling room there is a Ganpati idol and on the right side there was Lord vishnu's idol and there are three kunds.   

There is a huge pond outside the temple which gives it a grand looks. During the local festivals aartis are down along this pond.

It was now time for us to visit Revdanda fort which is only a kilometre away from this temple. We paid our respect to the gods and moved on.

Thanks for reading the blog and stay tuned to visit Revdanda Fort and beach with me in my next blog.