- Rameswaram Temple is located on the Pamban Island in the Gulf of Mannar, India.
- The temple is 10 km from the India’s famous tourist icon Pamban Bridge.
- The temple praised for Ramanathaswamy, the famous Hindu God, Shiva as its primary deity.
- Rameswaram’s earlier name was Gandhamadhanam.
- Rameswaram Temple is considered as one of the holiest pilgrim in India after Kasi.
- 12 Jyotirlingas are actually symbolized the Supreme Hindu God, Shiva. Rameshwaram is one of the 12 jyotirlinga.
- The temple covers up the area of 15 acres.
- During the reign of Pandya Dynasty , it experienced major expansions. It was particularly during the 12th century.
- Moreover, the king of the Jaffna Kingdom, Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan and his very own successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan, were the ones who renovated the temple’s principal shrine sanctum.
- Theerthams is believed that theerthams purify their soul, before they start worshipping inside the temple. Millions of people visiting Rameswaram Temple to have this holy water.
- There are 64 theerthams in which 22 theerthams are considered as holi water which is available within the temple.
- The surprise fact is all theerthams have unique taste even which is located very near to each other.
Brilliant Corridor Architecture :
- The corridors insode the temple extend around 400 feet. 640 feet towards the south and north direction.
- The temple corridors have a height of 6.9 meters.
- This temple corridors is composed with 1,212 pillars.
- The impressive fact is when we look the corridor from one end to another end the pillars meet in one dot. Which defines the brilliant architecture of tamil kings.
- The pillars are extremely helping for the stronger foundation of the Rameshwaram Temple, Each pillar carved with magnificent and artistic Hindu carvings.
- The height of every pillar this temple has is 30 feet. Magnificiant !!.
- There are three types of corridor inside the temple, in which third corridor is the biggest one.
- Its third corridor was built with unusual structure that you would think that it is a huge concrete chess board the moment you see it for the first time.
- Granite stones were the main materials used in its reconstructions.
- The main deity Ramalingam, which was formed by Goddess Sita out from the sand materials and Vishwalingam who was brought from Kailash by Lord Hanuman.
- The nandhi statue is 17 feet height, width is about 12 feet made with bricks, lime stones and sea shells.
- The west gopuram (gate tower) is 78 feet height and comprises of 5 tiers.
- The East Gopuram (gate tower) is 126 feet height and had 9 tiers.
- It is belived that the pure granite stones were transported by means of ships and were used for reconstruction in 1414 CE.
Myth from Ramayana :
According to Ramayana, Rama is prayed to Shiva here to absolve sin of killing a brahmana, committed during his war against the demon king Ravana. Rama wanted to have the largest lingam to worship Shiva. Rama ordered Hanuman to bring the lingam from Himalayas. Since it took longer to bring the lingam, Sita, built a small lingam out of the sand available in the sea shore, which is believed to be the lingam in the sanctum.
British government praises Rameshwaram Temple not only in the history of India, but in the world history as well.
Unknown fact is that the Third corridor in the Rameswaram Temple is considered as the world’s largest temple corridor. Impressive !!.