Our Interesting Trip To Rameshwaram And Dhanushkodi - II

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This is the second part of our trip to Rameshwaram. You can read the first part
here. The story continues...

 As I told you earlier, we went by jeep for 24 km.  14 Km were on tar road and then we reached the Dhanushkodi beach.  The jeep went on the beach sand for 10 Kms.!  Let me write about the passage at the end of this post.

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This is the area where we did the concluding part of the Tila homa!  We didn't go the to tip which is visible from here, since we were told the waves would be too high.  It would have been a bit scary standing at the tip of the land, surrounded by ocean and sea on all sides except for a strip of the land at one side! The wind was strong too!

This area was lonely when we reached the place.  Later a jeep full of people came here...tourists.  The junior purohit did some pooja via my husband to the ancestors here and then carrying the tray  with the ancestors' images in steel plates (it is presumed that these images are our ancestors), along with the til etc. both of us were asked to go a little deeper into the sea.  There, holding the tray on his head, my husband was asked to throw  the contents into the sea from the back of his head.  It is said that if we do this here, our ancestors who are roaming between heaven and earth will reach heaven instantly.  We can do this 'tila homa' only once in a lifetime.  Once the ancestors are sent to the heaven, doing this homa again is a waste, the purohit said.  Then we were asked to take three dips in the sea.  My husband is always scared of water.  He never enters water even in Marina beach which is quite shallow!  Unlike the Rameshwaram sea shore, here, the waves were quite high.  So, it was a bit scary, esp. for my husband.  My brother in law and the junior purohit helped him...I was also holding him(!).  I was giggling when we were falling down and he was so furious.  It was very difficult to stand up and wade back to the shore! I started walking on my knees and again my husband was furious! He was also laughing loudly after sitting safely in the jeep on our way back to the town! He was really scared in the water. The junior priest poured the water in the brass pot which was kept in the pooja (kudam), on our heads  after coming out of the sea and the homa was complete!

Now, to a brief history of Dhanushkodi! This place is situated at the tip of the island of Rameshwaram.  Dhanush means 'Bow' and Kodi means 'end/tip'.  Rama after coming back from Sri Lanka, after the war with Ravana, broke the bridge in this area, which connected this place with Sri Lanka.  This bridge was used by  his sena to reach Sri Lanka. It is called Rama Sethu now. Sethu means, bridge. The whole of Rameshwaram is  connected with the Hindu mythology, Ramayana.  Sri Lanka is just some 31 Km from this place.  The tip joins the Bay of Bengal and the Indian ocean. You can read more about this place here.

It is said that the pilgrimage to Rameshwaram is not complete without visiting this place and doing 'tharpanam' here, for the ancestors.  We can see both sunrise and sunset from this tip of the island.  We didn't touch the tip on that day.  Husband was very tired.  I got one clear picture from google  which is shown below:

Sunrise at Dhanushkodi.  Literally 'end of the road'!

My husband's aunt, who is in her 80's now, said that their family had visited Rameshwaram, nearly 50 years back.  They got down at the Dhanushkodi railway station and went to Rameshwaram temple, by bullock cart, it seems.  This station got devastated in the 1964 cyclone.  This area was a famous tourist/pilgrimage centre in those days.  A Ram temple (Sethu Maadhava Perumal) went under the sea.  A train full of passengers got drowned here, during the cyclone. Nearly 1800 people were killed. Wikipedia says:

Dhanushkodi in those days had a railway station, a small railway hospital, a higher secondary school, a post office, customs and port offices etc. It was here in this island in January 1897, Swami Vivekananda after his triumphant visit to the west to attend parliament of religions held in the USA in September 1893, set his foot on Indian soil from Columbo.

Some remnants of the town are still there, but the whole area looks deserted.  Our jeep went on the old track marks, very close to the sea water, sometimes into the water.  The driver was not diverting from the track marks.  There had been a tar road earlier and so the jeep didn't sink deep into the sand.   We saw some huts  and a small church also.  Mostly fishermen live here.  We saw some children with plastic - blue, red crosses hanging in their necks.  I clicked some pictures on my way back from the jeep.  The road was horrible.  The driver was just 19 years old.  He does 3 trips max. a day, it seems.  He had finished an ITI course, but his parents didn't allow him to go out of the town for work! We paid him Rs. 1000/-.  The purohit had arranged for this trip.  It is really cheap. Now, to more pictures of Dhanushkodi!

We saw some jeeps (mostly) with passengers, on our way back to the town!

The road goes into the water in this area! My sis in law was scared! Husband didn't show his fear, though!

Here, the jeep is out of water, but still very close to the sea!

Look at the vegetation in the salty sand.  I saw some flowers too!

I noticed some horse also, here.  Might be for tourists!

Notice the small white church on the right side corner!

As I told you earlier, the jeeps go on the same tracks.  If one jeep is coming from the opposite side, this jeep waits and the other one crosses very closeby!

Noticed some birds too!

Are these flowers or cactus? Click on the pictures for a clear view please!

This place looks unreal! But I saw this soft sand and sea! The picture was taken from the jeep, by which we were going back to town!

The 'shops' started! It is clearly visible that the fishermen folks are very poor, here! The area is full of Sri Lankan refugees too!

Watch tower? The place looked deserted in the afternoon sun...around 1 pm

Typical sea-shore shops, selling sea-shell artefacts!

The warning board asks people not to take bath here...many people have died while doing it!

The usual Indian picture...plastic bags everywhere!

This is a new trend in Tamilnadu! People display their wedding in posters with their favourite actor or saint(!) on main roads! I saw more than 10 posters like this!

They call this town a 'ghost town'.  For us it was a town full of poor fishermen.  But they say that this is a rich fishing belt in India.

I would have liked to see the ruins of the town, but all of us were tired this time.  There might not be another time.  We came back to the hotel, took some rest.  Went to the ancient temple once again and left for the train at night.  Next part will be about the Pamban Bridge.  I might write about the 4-5 temples we visited, which were full of Ramayana stories later! All were ancient temples, which was the attraction here!

I am tempting my son to visit this place for the thrilling experience of watching the ocean and sea meeting point!


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