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A
pilgrimage to Rameswaram is among the important injunctions laid on the
Hindu from time immemorial. The great temple of Sri Ramanatha is connected
by tradition with Keshi. A pilgrimage to Kasi is not considered complete
without a pilgrimage to Rameswaram. In olden days groups of pilgrims, many
of them quite old, walked huge distance to the two temples, taking months
and years, and some failing to survive the rigours and dangers of such
incredibly long journeys. Men and women know this cost might be exacted of
them, but they paid it cheerfully. The
Rameswaram pilgrimage has long been a tradition in South India,
particularly in Tamil Nadu, and has passed into folklore. Many kings of
old period themselves on having planted columns of victory in Rameswaram.
Krishna III the Rashtrakuta, in the tenth century, the Hoysala,
Vishnuvardhana, in the twelfth. It was a king of Sri Lanka who according
to inscriptions, built the sanctum of the temple. The
temple, which has over the centuries grown into its present gigantic
dimensions, stands on the eastern shore of an island, which is shaped like
a conch, which Lord Vishnu bears in one of His bands. No field is ploughed
or oil pressed anywhere in the island. A magnificent railway bridge, over
a kilometre long and constructed at the beginning of the twentieth
century, connected it with the mainland. To
help the pilgrims walking incredible distances, philanthropists used to
construct rest houses at intervals along the way. The last of them before
Rameswaram was Thangachimadam, a few kilometres away on the island. Modern
means of transport have made these resthouses superfluous. But in their
time they were most useful, even vital. The Sethupathis of Ramanathapuram,
of which district Rameswaram is an administrative part were called the
guardians of the Sethu", the bridge which, according to tradition,
was built for Sri Rama to cross over into Sri Lanka when He set out to
recover Sita. The
temple 264m east to west and 200m north to south, and with three prakaras,
two big gopuras and two more unfinished ones, faces east, a few metres
from the sea. It contains two Lingas under worship. These are innumerable
other shrines and twenty-two "tirthas", or sacred bathing
places. Since
it was Sri Rama Himself who, in time honoured tradition, built the temple,
it is held in particular reverence. After killing Ravana, He returned to
India and, in Ramaswaram, offered worship to Lord Siva to expiate the sin incurred
in destorying him. In tending to set up a Linga, He directed
Hanuman to bring one from Kailasa within a certain time. Hanuman was
delayed. Meanwhile, the propitious hour for the installation having
arrived, Sita Herself prepared one of sand, and they offered it worship.
This is the Linga of Sri Ramanatha in the temple. When
Hanuman returned with a Linga, He found that it was too late. He was angry
and attempted to uproot the Ramalinga. But He failed. To pacify Him Sri
Rama directed that his Linga, the Visvalinga, should also be set up and
that worship should first be offered to it. This is the second Linga under
worship in the temple. Everything
in and near Rameswaram is traditionally connected with incidents in the
"Ramayana". The Kashi pilgrimage is considered complete not only
after worship in the Sri Ramanatha temple but also after a bath in
Dhanushkodi, a tip of the island where the Bay of Bengal, called the
Mahodadhi in ancient times, joins the Indian Ocean, or Ratnakaram, its
beautiful old name "Dhanushkodi", in Timil the "end of the
bow", takes its name from a tradition that Sri Rama, at the request
of Vibishana, his friend, destroyed the bridge to Sri Lanka with the end
of His bow. Dhanushkodi was affected in a cyclone a few years ago. At
the main eastern entrance stands a huge gopura of nine stories and 38.4m
high. The outermost, or third, corridor, 196m long and 120.4 wide, is one
of the achievements of the Hindu artist down the ages. There are about
four thousand pillars, each 3.7m high. All are located on a platform 1.5m
high. They look like an orderly, petrified forest. What is truly
remarkable apart from the sheer artistry of it which has so magnificently
conquered problems of proportions, height and such like, is that all these
stones must have been transported here over long distances and across the
sea by a causeway. In Nayak times there was a kind of ford. How the huge
stones could have been carried across a turbulent sea is a question the
answer to which proves that old Indian engineers were quite advanced in
their technology. This fact becomes apparent even in the eleventh century
when the construction of the great temple in Thanjavur is studied (see
below). A
huge Nandi, 6.7m long and 5m high, stands beyond the second prakara. It is
made of sudai, a material used for sculptures on gopuras. On either side
of it there are portraits of two of the Nayaks, Visvanatha and Krishnapa. In
the principle sanctum there is the Linga of Sri Ramanatha. This is the one
which Sita made and Sri Rama sanctified. There is much delicate artistry
in many parts of the sanctum. The vimana, of three storeys, contains image
of Hanuman, the Gandhamadhana Linga, and the Agastya Linga. The Linga of
Visvanatha which Hanuman brought is enshrined in another sanctum to the
north. Worship is offered to it first. In yet another shrine there is an
image of Visvanatha, Ramanatha's Consort, Parvathavardhani, is enshrined
in a sanctum to the right of His. Usually, in Siva temples, the Goddess in
enshrined to the left of the Lord. But here, as in Madurai, this location
has not been followed. Behind
the Sri Ramanatha shrine, and between the second and third prakaras, there
is a sanctum for Lord Vishnu as Sethumadhava. Strictly speaking, the name
should be "Svetha Madhava". The first word is Sanskrit for
"white". The name derives from the fact that the image is of
white marble. An interesting story is told of the origin of the shrine. A
Pandy of Madurai, Punyanadhi, once came to Rameswaram on pilgrimage and
performed a sacrifice to propitiate Lord Vishnu. The Lord, in order to
test his faith, sent Goddess Lakshmi as an orphan girl. The pandya, having
no daughter of his own, adopted her and lavished affection on her. One day
Lord Vishnu, in the guise of an old ascetic, made his way into her
apartment. When the king heard of this, he loaded him with chains and had
him imprisoned in the Rameswaram temple. That night he dreamt that the old
man appeared as Lord Vishnu and the girl as Goddess Lakshmi. When he went
to the princess apartment, he was the same sight. On coming to the
Rameswaram temple, he found an image of Vishnu in shakles. Then he
realised the enormity of what he had done. But the Lord consoled him and
said that He, with Goddess Lakshmi, would remain in the temple in
shackles. The tradition is that he who bathes in a tank near the shrine
and offers worship in that shrine will receive all the benefits of a bath
in Sethu, and that he who brings sand from Dhanushkodi and offers worship
here will obtain all the benefits of the Kashi pilgrimage. The
western gopura is smaller than the eastern, but still impressive, being
24m high. On the northern and southern sides there are unfinished gopuras. There
are no less than twenty-two "thirthas", or bathing places,
mainly within, but a few also outside, the temple. According to time
honoured tradition, the pilgrim bathes first in the Agni Tirtha, as the
sea to the east of the temple is called (nearby there is a Sankara matha),
and finally in the Kodi tirtha, which is within the temple. The importance
of bathing in these "tirthas" derives from the tradition that
Sri Krishna Himself did so. Outside
the temple, on the island, there are a few sites also held sacred. About
2.5 km west on the temple, on a hillock, stands the Gandamadhana Parvata.
In this mandapa footprints of Sri Rama are enshrined. From the top
of the mandapa there is a fine view of parts of the island. Eight k from
the temple, on the way to Dhanushkodi, there is a beautiful temple of Sri
Kodandarama where, tradition says, Vibishana was crowned when he joined
Sri Rama. Outside
the island, there are three other sites traditionally connected with Sri
Rama's expedition to Sri Lanka. A big temple in Tiruppullani commemorates
the tradition that there the Lord obtained a bow and arrows to use in the
impending war from its presiding Deity and also that the Lord of the Ocean
who had refused to help Him finally submitted. Five km south of the temple
is Sethu, where there is a celebrated temple of Sri Anjaneya, and where,
tradition holds, Sri Rama built a bridge to Sri Lanka. In Devipatnam, or
Navapashanam, also by the sea, there are nine stones visible at low tide.
It is believed that they were set up by Sri Rama to represent the nine
planets, the Navagrahas. Sixteen
km south-west of Ramanathapuram, the headquarters town of the district,
stands the renowned Siva temple of Uttarakosamangai. Manikkavachagar has
sung of it. The Lord is Mangalesvara and the goddess Mangalesvari. The
temple has inspired many Tamil works of devotion. So, of course, has the
Ramnatha temple in Rameswaram. To
the making, expansion and preservation of these and many other temples in
the district the Setupathis of Ramanathapuram contributed magnificently.
Originally a ruling power in these parts, they were made zamindars by the
British. The Setupathi's proud boast was that he was the guardian of the
Sethu. The family is closely connected with the temples in Remeswaram.
Tiruppullani, and Uttarakosamangai. |
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