Trip To Madurai & Rameswaram - Part 1

This is the most unexpected journey of mine to date. Having decided during dinner at 9pm on Thursday 17 April '08, I packed my luggage and started alone by 10pm. I planned to visit famous pilgrimage sites Madurai and Rameswaram.


Luckily I got into an AC bus run by TN govt directly upto Madurai. This newly introduced bus was built by Prakash, probably to give competition to Volvo in Indian market. Most of the features of the coach was a mimic to its competitor except for air suspension which it loses to the latter.



Reached Madurai at around 8.30am. City is pretty ok. Also called temple City, this is world famous for Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.

This temple believed to be built around 2500 yrs ago, was a nominee for new 7 wonders of the world owing to its great architecture. The symbol of the gopuram here is even used as logo for TN Govt. Checked-in a hotel nearby temple.





Unexpectedly there was annual festival called "ThiruKalyanam" going on that day. Its actually a 11 day fest held every year with the auspicious Kalyanam (marriage of Meenakshi amman and Sundareswarar swamy) on the 9th day. I felt lucky to be present there at this fest.




The temple was heavily crowded with head count of visitors crossing some lakhs. I wondered how much time it would take for me to have darshan. After an hour or so, I managed to get inside. What a huge temple it was !!! It is one of the biggest temples in India(along with Srirangam, Tiruvannamalai). First visited shrine of Sri Sundareswarar. Very much in accordance to the name, the deity was a pleasant sight.

Then moved to Sri Meenakshi amman shrine located next to this. The deity was too marvelous. Presence of parrot on right hand of the deity adds to its glory. Took special darshan ticket for 100 bucks and went ahead than the regular free darshan. After visting both the shrines, I made a point not to miss the famous Golden lotus pond located in the temple. It was too good.





After lunch, I proceeded to next destination Rameswaram around 165kms from Madurai.

Trip to Madurai & Rameswaram - Part 2

Started from Madurai at 2.30pm to Rameswaram. I was excited while we were approaching the famous Pamban bridge that connects Rameswaram island to Indian peninsula. This is a chain of the Palk Strait that separates India and SriLanka. Rail n road bridges were parallel but the one for rail is considered to be one of the best engineering marvels today in the world. The rail bridge has a section in between the length which can be lifted up for ships to pass beneath. But as I was going on bus, I couldn't feel that thrill. So I decided to return in a train.

Rameswaram is a small town mostly filled with sand :) Reached at 6.30pm. It took me more than an hour to take a room in a hotel. It seems they have order from Govt. not to allow single person for hotel accommodation. After producing my college ID card, I somehow managed to get one room in a hotel nearby the temple.

Rushed for darshan as it was temple closing time. It was very less crowded unlike Madurai. Had a very nice darshan of Sri Ramanathaswamy (one of the 12 jyothirlingas)and Parvatavardhini ammavaru. I was there about half n hour infront of the main deity while 1008 kalasa abhishekam was being performed. wat a splendid sight!!!

Brief history of the temple goes like this. Upon advice of Agastya maharshi to become free from Brahma hatya patakam, SriRama after killing Ravana, as the latter was a brahmin.This Siva lingam was made out of sand by Sita devi while Hanuman was sent to Kailasam for getting Linga from Lord Siva and he couldn't return on time. So this temple is famous for those who worship Siva or Vishnu. Next day morning I had another visit the temple at 5am where Mani darshanam is performed. It lasts only for an hour in the whole day. Pooja would be performed to a big Spatika Lingam, very rarely found.




After that I rushed to the sea to observe the sunrise. It takes 5min to reach the sea shore from the temple.Awesome sight.






Another important ritual at this place is bath at 108 thirthas/wells (currently around 22-25 operational). The guides there would draw water from the thirthas in small buckets and pour on you. This process is believed to relieve human from all sins. After this, I purchased Ganga water and presented there for abhishekam.






This temple architecture is also noteworthy. It houses India's longest
corridor with huge pillars on both sides.







Next destination was Dhanushkodi, native place of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. This area had peculiar geography. Land was present length wise, both left & right sides was nothing but sea.It was as very small village. Only sources of livelihood are fishing and sale of shells. From this place, one can view Jaffna peninsula of SriLanka.

So started back to Madurai at 4.30pm in Sethu express that runs till Madras. Till pamban, it was as if the train was moving on sand :P. The journey on Pamban bridge is the highlight exp in my whole journey. Train was moving dead slow. There were no supporting beams either side. It was awesome..

Reached Madurai by 8.30pm n boarded again TN AC bus to Bangalore at around 10.30pm that was coming from Kanyakumari which dropped me here by 9am.


Finally, readers kindly comment on these posts as I would be able to judge their quality and further improve.