Travel to Rameswaram

Rameswaram, The word is derived from Eswar installed by SriRama, hence its Rameswaram. A small island with many surprises and myths. Sometime its hard to believe but on the other hand you tend to believe. I took a train from Chennai(Tambaram) to rameswaram, its approximately 16-18 hrs journey. The island is connected through Train, Road and Sea. If you are travelling by train or bus one can have a excellent view of the PAMBAN bridge which connects the Mandabam and the Island. Its a view to watch. one side of the train you will see PALK Bay and on the other side you will see Gulf of Mannar. Truely a engineering masterpiece. Once you are in the island you can settle down in any Dharamsala(hotel for charity) or in some good hotels. Its not very expensive. For Pilgrimage- Devotees are escorted by local priest and thier apprentice to various theerthams(ponds/well) for taking holy dip. First i started with Lakshmana Theertham and then to ram theertham and then to agni theertham... after this three dips you have to enter the temple(ramanathaswamy), inside the temple you have 22 Theerthams for different purposes.. It cost 17rupees per person. A guy will take you to the well , fetch the holy water from the well and pour on your head. So that makes it 25 baths. After taking bath one cannot enter the temple with wet cloths hence go back to hotel, dres yourself and visit the temple. Now coming on inside the temple. The idol is of Lord Shiva, as per ramayana, SriSita devi herself installed the lingam made out of sand for Srirama to worship Lord Shiva to get rid of Brahamahati Dosham coz of killing ravana . and you have two more idols which was bought by Sri Hanuman from Lord shiva himself from kailasa... so as per the records one should see the Lingam installed by Hanuman first and then that of Sri Sita.

Next i will come to Tirupullani, a temple where dasharata worshipped lord vishu for having childrens.. Hence four vedas are born to the king as Four sons. Thats the place where Srirama did penace to Samudraraja(sea god) to give him way to construct the bridge.

Then is the place called Devipeetam, Thats a place which will make you think again and again. The story goes: Srirama wanted to install navagraha(nine Planets) to worship -made of sand, lord comes and tell him that nine planet will come on thier own(SWAYAMBU). One can see nine stone 50 meters from the shore. As Srirama was worshipping there Samudraraja was instructed not to disturb srirama, hence anyone who visits that place can see that there is no tide/waves in the shore. Its a sea and one cant see any land from that shore... How come its against the nature.?

Then there is a place called Danushkoti.. Its a tip of rameswaram, it would be around 30 kms away... only 4 wheel drive can take you inside the sand and to the tip of the place. You can see ruins of 1964 cyclon which stuck the town and from there one can see two oceans joining at one end... people say that from there srilanka is only 14kms.You will get jeeps and will cost you only 700 rupees per jeep which can accomodate 5 + 1

Then coming back you will be seeing KOTHANDA RAMAR temple. thats the place where Vibhishana(ravana’s Brother) was crowned as King of srilanka by Srirama.

There is one more place called Sethukarai. Thats the place where the bridge was constructed to srilanka by Srirama and his army. People say bridge is visible if one takes a boat 1 km from the shore inside the sea. Overall, i would say great place to visit.