Rameswaram

Coordinates: 9°17′17″N 79°18′47″E / 9.288°N 79.313°E / 9.288; 79.313
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This article is about the temple town. For main temple, see Ramanathaswamy Temple. For other uses, see Rameswaram (disambiguation).

Rameswaram
Town
UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN CODE
623526
Vehicle registrationTN 65

Rameswaram (IPA:

Pamban channel and is about 40 kilometres from Mannar Island, Sri Lanka. It is in the Gulf of Mannar, at the tip of the Indian peninsula.[1] Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, is connected to mainland India by the Pamban Bridge. Rameswaram is the terminus of the railway line from Chennai and Madurai. Together with Varanasi, it is considered to be one of the holiest places in India to Hindus and is part of the Char Dham
pilgrimage.

Rameswaram
Rameswaram
class=notpageimage|
Char Dham

According to the

Vaishnavas.[2][3]

Rameswaram is the second closest point from which to reach Sri Lanka from India and geological evidence suggests that the

Rama Sethu was a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka.[4]

The town has been in the news in past due to controversies such as the

Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and capturing local fishermen for alleged cross-border activities by Sri Lankan Forces.[5]

Rameswaram is administered by a municipality established in 1994. The town covers an area of 53 km2 (20 sq mi) and had a population of 44,856 as of 2011. Tourism and fishery employ the majority of workforce in Rameswaram.[citation needed]

Legend

Rameswaram means "Lord is Rama" (Rāma-īśvaram) in Sanskrit, an epithet of Shiva, the presiding deity of the Ramanathaswamy Temple.[6] According to Hindu epic Ramayana, Rama, the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, prayed to Shiva here to absolve any sins that he might have committed during his war against the demon-king Ravana in Sri Lanka.[7][3] According to the Puranas (Hindu scriptures), upon the advice of sages, Rama, along with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana, installed and worshipped the lingam (an iconic symbol of Shiva) here to expiate the sin of Brahmahatya incurred while killing of the Brahmin Ravana.[8] To worship Shiva, Rama wanted to have a lingam and directed his trusted lieutenant Hanuman to bring it from Himalayas.[9][3] Since it took longer to bring the lingam, Sita built a lingam made of sand from the nearby seashore, which is also believed to be the one in the sanctum of the temple.[9] Sethu Karai is a place 22 km before the island of Rameswaram from where Rama is believed to have built a floating stone bridge, the Ramsetu bridge, that further continued to Dhanushkodi in Rameswaram till Talaimannar in Sri Lanka.[7][10] According to another version, as quoted in Adhyatma Ramayana, Rama installed the lingam before the construction of the bridge to Lanka.[11][12][13][14] But the Dvaita philosopher and vaishnava saint Madhvacharya expressed his views in his book Mahabharata tatparya nirnaya that it's actually not Rama but Shiva who had incurred brahmahatya sin as he had once chopped off Lord Brahma's head so Shiva had prayed to vishnu to relieve him of the sin and Vishnu promised to do so in his Rama avatar the moment Rama installed the shiva linga here Shiva immediately got relieved of brahmahatya sin due to the grace of Rama's touch.

History

The history of Rameswaram is centred around the island being a transit point to reach Sri Lanka (Ceylon historically) and the presence of Ramanathaswamy Temple.

Rajendra Chola I (1012–1040 CE) had a control of the town for a short period.[17] The Jaffna kingdom (1215–1624 CE) had close connections with the island and claimed the title Setukavalan meaning custodians of the Rameswaram.[18] Hinduism was their state religion and they made generous contribution to the temple.[18] Setu was used in their coins as well as in inscriptions as marker of the dynasty.[18]

According to Firishta,

British East India Company and was annexed to the Madras Presidency. After 1947, the town became a part of Independent India.[17]

Geography

Dhanushkodi island among blue waters of Bay of Bengal.
An aerial view of Dhanushkodi, at the tip of Rameswaram

Rameswaram has an average elevation of 10 m (33 ft). The island is spread across an area of 61.8 km2 (23.9 sq mi) and is in the shape of a conch. 74% of the area has sandy soil due to the presence of sea and it has many islands surrounding it, the Palk Strait in the north west and Gulf of Mannar in the south East.[24] The Ramanathaswamy Temple occupies major area of Rameswaram. The beach of Rameswaram is featured with no waves at all – the sea waves rise to a maximum height of 3 cm (0.10 ft) and the view looks like a very big river.

Rameswaram has dry tropical climate with low humidity,[24] with average monthly rainfall of 75.73 mm (2.981 in),[24] mostly from North-East monsoon from October to January. The highest ever temperature recorded at Pamban station was 37 °C and the lowest was 17 °C.[25]

Map of Ramsetu's Bridge (a chain of limestone shoals) and environs, before the cyclone of 1964.

Ramsetu Bridge is a chain of

Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal Library show this area as Ramancoil, a colloquial form of the Tamil Raman Kovil (or Rama's Temple).[30] Many other maps in Schwartzberg's historical atlas[31] and other sources such as travel texts by Marco Polo call this area by various names such as Adam's Bridge, Sethubandha and Sethubandha Rameswaram.[32]

Demographics

Religious census
Religion Percent(%)
Hindu
 
 87.4%
Christian
 
 8.13%
Muslim
 
 4.36%
Sikh
 
 0.03%
Buddhist
 
 0.01%
Other
 
 0.07%

According to

BPL) in 2003 were 976, which is 10.45% of the total households in the town and these were raised to 3003 (29.12%) in 2007.[24]

As per the religious census of 2011, Rameswaram had 87.4%

Buddhists, and 0.07% following other religions.[35]

Municipal Administration and politics

set of houses in the streets of Rameswaram.
A street in Rameswaram
Municipality Officials
Commissioner A. Kannan[36]
Chairman K.E. Naazarkhan[37]
Vice Chairman V. Dhatchanamoorthy[38]
Appointment Committee Leader D. Mugeshkumar[39]
Elected Members
Member of Legislative Assembly Katharbatcha Muthuramalingam[40][verification needed]
Member of Parliament K. Navaskani[41][verification needed]

According to the

Scheduled Caste women.[42] The major sources of budgeted income for Rameswaram municipality comes from the Devolution Fund of ₹17 million (equivalent to ₹38 million or US$480,000 in 2023) and property tax of ₹2.4 million (equivalent to ₹5.4 million or US$67,000 in 2023).[43] The major expense heads are for salaries of ₹6 million (equivalent to ₹13 million or US$170,000 in 2023), operating expenses of ₹3.7 million (equivalent to ₹8.3 million or US$100,000 in 2023), and repair & maintenance expenditure of ₹2.3 million (equivalent to ₹5.2 million or US$65,000 in 2023).[43] The functions of the municipality are devolved into six departments: General, Engineering, Revenue, Public Health, Town planning and the Computer Wing.[44] All these departments are under the control of a Municipal Commissioner who is the supreme executive head.[44] The legislative powers are vested in a body of 21 members, one each from the 21 wards. The legislative body is headed by an elected Chairperson assisted by a Deputy Chairperson.[45]

Rameswaram comes under the

AIADMK.[40]

Rameswaram is a part of the

Tiruchuli (newly created).[47] The constituency was traditionally a stronghold of the Indian National Congress that won 6 times till the 1991 elections, after which it was won twice each by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The current Member of Parliament from the constituency is A. Anwhar Raajhaa from the AIADMK party.[41]

Economy

Being a pilgrimage town, the majority of the population is involved in tourism related industry consisting of trade and services.[48] Service sector increased from 70% in 1971 to 98.78% in 2001, while the agricultural sector reduced from 23% in 1971 to 0.13% in 2001.[48] Rameswaram is an industrially backward town – there has been no demarcation for industrial land due to the pilgrim sanctity and ecological fragile geography.[48] Being an island town, the traditional occupation was fishing, but due to poor returns, the people in fishing community have gradually shifted to other professions.[48] Banks such as State Bank of India, Indian Bank, Union Bank of India and RDCC Bank have their branches in Rameswaram.[49]

Rameshwaram has well road connectivity from

Trichy passes through Pudukkottai-Karaikudi-Ramanathapuram. Indian government and state government are keep developing the road connectivity in this region as the number of tourists gets increased every year.[50]

Transport and Communication

cantilever iron bridge for rails and concrete road bridge on the backwaters of Bay of Bengal.
Road and rail bridge

Pamban Bridge is a

cyclone in 1964.[52]

Pamban lighthouse, Rameswaram

There are daily express trains connecting major cities in Tamil Nadu like

Trichy, Coimbatore and Karaikudi.[53] There are express and passenger trains connecting to major destinations.[53] The Ramanathapuram – Rameswaram National Highway is the main connecting link from Rameswaram to the mainland.[54] Before the 1914 train service linked the mainland with Rameswaram, boats were the only mode of transport to Rameswaram island.[54][55][56]

ash coloured concrete structure of Rameswaram TV tower
Rameswaram TV tower

The Rameswaram municipality covers a total road length of 52 km and 20 km of national highway covering about 80 percent of the town.[57] The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation runs daily services connecting various cities to Rameswaram and operates a computerised reservation centre in the municipal bus stand of Rameswaram.[58]

Rameswaram is the important port among all the ports in the district, having a ferry service to Talaimannar of Sri Lanka, though not operational throughout the year.[56] Limited foreign trade is conducted with Jaffna, Kaits, Talaimannar and Colombo.[56]

The

Pamban lighthouse and Rameswaram lighthouse.[61]

Education and utility services

Ramanathapuram district has one of the lowest literacy rates in the state of Tamil Nadu and Rameswaram, following the district statistics has a lower literacy rate. There are two Government high schools, one each for boys and girls.[62] [verification needed]There are seven other schools namely, Swami Vivekananda vidyalaya Matriculation School, St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Mandapam Panchayat Union 9 – School, Micro Matriculation School, Sri Sankara Vidhyalaya, Holy Island Little Flower School and Kendriya Vidhyalaya School.[62][verification needed] Alagappa University Evening College is the only college present in the town[63] and all the nearest colleges are located in Ramanathapuram and Paramakudi.[64][63]

Electricity supply to the town is regulated and distributed by the Ramanathapuram circle of

Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).[65] Water supply is provided by the Rameswaram Municipality – the head works is located at Nambunayaki Amman Kovil, Meyyambuli, Semmamadam & Natarajapuram and distributed through four over head tanks having a total capacity of 1430,000 litres.[66] About 6 metric tonnes of solid waste are collected from the town every day in the four zones covering the whole of the town.[67] Rameswaram does not have a sewerage system for disposal of sullage and the disposal system consists of septic tanks and public conveniences.[68] Roadside drains carry untreated sewage out of the town to let out raw into the sea or accumulates in low-lying area.[68]

Rameswaram comes under the Karaikudi Telecom circle of the

broadband internet service[69] along with other major internet service provider including Reliance.[70]

Tourism

Rameswaram
Rameswaram
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Char Dham