Madurai-Rameshwaram

January 16, 2010

Madurai.. The city of temples.. Athens of the East... Far different than the small town of Kanyakumari.

Late last night, we reached Madurai after a 5 hours journey by train. Our driver was ready at the station and this is another remarkable thing I observed here- time punctuality.

Madurai is the oldest inhibited city of the world. It is famous for the Meenakshi Temple, a marvel of engineering. But our day started with a visit to Rameshwaram.
Rameshwaram means the God of Rama. According to Ramayana, lord Rama worshiped Shiv before marching forward to lanka to kill the demonous king Ravana. The legend says that Vanarsena (army of monkeys) who helped Rama, constructed a bridge-Setu Bandha or Ramasetu over sea and reached the island of Lanka.

Rameshwaram is a small island connected to India by the Pumban Bridge- the original sea-link.

There are many places of mythological and historical significance in Rameshwaram. But it was so crowded! All Ayyappa's devotees had gathered there. To be true, we are travelling at the wrong time, but this tour was planned as per the eclipse. Anyways, We first went to The Rameshwaram or Ramanathswami temple, a sacred place for the devotees. There were huge queues.. So we didn't go to the garbhabriha. My aunt was a little disappointed by this, but we were running out of time.

On our way we also passed the place where Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalaam grew up... I was thrilled!

Ramarpadam is where one can see the footprint of Lord Rama. It's in a small shrine on a hill, which also serves as a watch-tower. This place was a lot quieter than the Rameshwara temple.

Sita-Kundam, Hanuman kundam,etc are all bathing ghats, I avoided going there because of huge crowds. and I avoid to comment on this superstition that a bath in the holy water will cleans your sins.

Instead, we spent some time in the Panchamukhi (five-faced) Hanuman shrine. And the main attraction here are the floating stones which were used to build the Ramsetu.! It is a mystery to me why these stones float? may be they are made of some lighter components? I don't know if anyone has done any research on these stones.

I learnt an amazing story here. In the shrine, there are beautiful Golden idols of Ram, Sita, Laxman and Hanuman. Originally these idols were in a temple in Dhanushkodi, around 20 kms away. In 1964-65, a tsunami caused by cyclonic storm hit the island and a train on Pamban bridge was immediately submerged, killing all the passengers. The tidal wave also washed away the village of Dhanushkodi. It was a great disaster and signs of it are evident on the island. after the storm, the idols were recovered from sea and the stones were discovered during that expedition.

Incidentally, our next stop was Dhanushkodi. It's the far end of the island and a place near the Sri Lanka border. But all vehicles can't go there as the road ends at around 7 kms from Rameshwaram. Our driver drove us to the end of the road, it's a two-lane rout surrounded by the sea on both sides. what to do next? We had no idea. There is a naval office here, which was closed because of lunchtime. There was nobody who could guide us. I so wanted to go to Dhanushkodi, which is a ghost town now... But we had to reach back in time. May be, next time I'll get to see it...

Our last stop was the Meenakshi Mandir. Here, again there was a flood of people who came to worship. We were more intertested in the Thousand Pillars wall. The entrance of the hall is decorated with several idols- deities playing different instrument. There are musical pillars which when knocked in a specific way, you can produce music. The archaeology department has put barricade in front of them, so you can't knock on them.. The hall today houses the temple art museum. There is a huge idol of Nataraja in the middle of the hall. Here, lord Shiv the deity associated with music, performed a special dance, as per the legend. Meenakshi Mandir has four entrances & on each one of them, there is a gopuram, decorated with thousands of carvings in stone.

As I walked through the corridors, I realised, my stay in South is almost over. But south will always remain in my heart...