Rameshwaram - Part 1

In December of last year (2022), my father and I decided to make a quick tour of Rameswaram. Though Rameswaram is just eight hours by road from Thiruvananthapuram, I never had the opportunity to visit so far. My father also had in the recent past mentioned that he wanted to visit the Kalam museum.  It has been a while since the trip but finally I have got around to penning this blog.

Day 1 - 19th December 2022

We started by 5 AM aiming to cover the ‘bad’ section of the roads before dawn. My father was lying down in the back seat but the back breaking roads ensured that he got up and joined me at the front. By sun-break we reached windmill country.

There were hundreds of windmills in operation on the state highway connecting Nagercoil and NH44.  Right at breakfast time we stopped at Tirunelveli and we enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast of pongal, vada and dosa. The highway connecting Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi was not as wide as NH44 but had much less traffic. The wide-open spaces on both sides of the road were also a novelty (especially coming from Kerala where space is at a premium).

Making good time we reached Pamban palam by noon. This bridge connects the town of Mandapam (on the mainland) with the island of Pamban (Rameswaram).

In the picture above you can see the famous railway bridge (opened in 1914) and in the background you can see the new one they are building to replace the old one. People say that crossing the bridge by train is an amazing experience (the tracks are just above the sea level) but due to lack of time, we couldn’t plan for this short journey by train.

We spent a few minutes on the bridge snapping photos and enjoying the vigorous breeze. Whilst there we met a family from Chhattisgarh who – on hearing that we were from Kerala – informed us of their plans to tour Kerala the following week and took some tips from us.

Rameswaram town is on the eastern edge of the Pamban island. Enroute to the town from the bridge is the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam memorial.

This is the location where Dr Kalam was laid to rest after his passing. The memorial was very nicely done. Displays included life size plaster of paris scenes from his life and numerous photographs and medals. Outside the building there were statuettes and a very nicely managed park.

From there we went straight to the hotel, checked in, grabbed a quick lunch and rested for a while.

The man at the reception had informed us that due to the Sabarimala pilgrim rush, the best time to visit the Rameswaram temple would be around 4 PM in the evening (and not early next morning as we were planning to do).

We saw the imposing gopuram of the north nada first. This is the entrance through which devotees enter for their round of taking a symbolic (or otherwise) bath of the 22 theerthams. We went around the temple and reached the east nada.  A ‘helpful’ roadside vendor offered to safeguard our footwear in exchange for purchasing a garland (Rs 100). Garland in hand, we breezed through the entrance and as expected there was no rush for darshan.

Also called the ‘Arulmigu Sri Ramanathaswamy’ temple, this is one of the twelve jyothirlinga shrines. As you are probably aware, the temple gets its name since Shri Rama is supposed to have prayed here to Lord Shiva to atone for killing his devotee, Ravana. An interesting myth around this temple is that Rama requested Hanuman to bring a lingam from the Himalayas. Hanuman was delayed and the time for the puja was fast approaching. Sita, then moulded a linga of sand from the nearby sand dunes. When Hanuman brought the linga he was disappointed. Rama then proclaimed that anyone who prayed here should first take darshan of the linga brought by Hanuman.

It was dark inside the sanctum sanctorum and try as I could, I did not see two lingas – I did get good darshan of the major linga though.  The corridors inside were beautiful – especially the third corridor. There were little shrines dotted around. I had heard of a rare Shweta Madhava shrine being present inside but this eluded us as well.

Darshan over, we happened to see this (closed) hall just outside the temple.

On enquiring we were informed that Swami Vivekananda mediated there when he visited. We decided to drive to Kunthukal beach to see the Vivekananda memorial. It was a very quiet and scenic place. The sun was setting and there were only a few folks there. 

First we visited the Vivekananda memorial hall. This is where Vivekananda landed after his famous Chicago address at the conference of all religions. Next to it is an aquarium with a garish shark statue beckoning visitors to it!

The adjacent Kunthukal beach looked very serene. It was a shame that the approach from the memorial side was closed. We spent a few minutes sitting on a bench by the calm sea before heading back to the car.

It was starting to get dark but we still had time to make one stop on the way back to town.

Villoondi theertham is a well built around 100m into the sea. You can see for yourselves in the pics below

The story goes that Rama created this well to quench Sita's thirst. When she was thirsty, he made a well with one thump of his bow. Whether the story is true or not, the water in the well was sweet and the water drawn from ocean (as expected) was salty. There was a chap stationed there with two small buckets from which he drew water.  For a small fee, he got us to sample and prove the above hypothesis. Truth be told I was not too keen to taste the sea water but was forced to do so by our new friend who also reminded us of the story.

By now it was getting dark and, on the way back to the hotel we filled up on gas for the car and also food for the humans (try as we might we could not find a place that served dosa earlier in the afternoon! But thankfully we found an ‘Aryaas Ressidence’ (no that’s not a typo) which served delicious ghee roasts) before retiring for the night.