Rameswaram

Now I am visible!!

No, Nirmala was not the photographer. We found a stranger who volunteered to take one.

I want to mention here that I am not posting in the order that we visited. Whichever place comes to my mind at the time I post, that is where we are going. Today, I would like to take you to Rameswaram. The drive was beautiful. I love waters, especially the water that makes sound - either water falls or water waves!!

Before giving an account of my experience, I want to add these.
This Shiva Temple (Shivasthalam) is one of the 12 Jyotirlingams and the southernmost one.

This was my second visit to Rameswaram. The first one was in 1987 with my friend Sulochana and my two children. My parents visited here in the early fifties and I still have the sea shells that they brought home. I was with them during their trip to Varanasi, but they left us behind for this trip.

This temple is mentioned in the Ramayana and is of historic and spiritual importance. It is famous for long corridors and towers. There are 36 teerthams (I am not sure about the number) out of which 22 are in the Temple compund. These waters have medicinal value, they say. It is said that Rama worshipped Shiva here before returning to his kingdom in Ayodhya. There are two lingams here. One installed by Rama himself (made of sand or earth by Sita) is called Ramalingam and the other brought by Hanuman from Kasi (Varanasi) is called kasilingam. Why two lingams? Well, Hanuman was sent on this errand to Kasi. But the auspicious moment was arriving and Rama anticipated a delay in Hanuman's return and decided to go ahead with the pooja. The Kasi lingam is also called Hanuma lingam.

The architecture is awesome. the Nandi (the bull) is huge. Probably 18X20 feet. The gopuram (tower?) is about 125 feet tall.T he corridors are probably the longest in the world. I have taken some photos of these corridors and will add them later. There are more than 4000 pillars in these corridors. A must see. We were told that these rocks were imported from other parts of Tamil Nadu and are not local to that area. There is a lot modern history attached to this Temple. You can visit other sites for more details.
More to come............