Trip to Madurai – Rameshwaram – Part 4
Continued from http://allyouwannaknow.net/aroundtheworld/2009/06/05/trip-to-madurai-rameshwaram-part-3/
Our driver was a nice man who dint even let us know that he was there. He played some tamil songs continuously….but they were hardly audible. I still don’t know if even he could hear them.
We kept talking and screaming as though he dint exist….god knows what impression he would have of us
We had loaded the luggage in the front seat next to the driver.
Appa Amma and Sangu sat in the middle row. Prashanth and I sat at the back.
We had a short discussion and decided to please mummy…..switched on the AC….
On the way to Rameshwaram, amma had some agenda added…..
First we stopped for lunch in a hotel….had lunch….meals and special meals (forgot the hotel’s name)….what I remember most is the soup that was served for the special meals….it was coloured water mixed with oil and heated to boiling temperature.
We stopped at devipattinam
Here we had to walk into a small open corridor built. This lead to a spot where there were nine stones that represented the navagrahas installed.
We were here at noon time…so the navagrahas were almost immersed in sea water. People were getting into the water and praying.
We just stood on the side and watched.
It seems, in the morning times, the sea retreats and the navagrahas are fully dry and visible (it was like that….now they have built a barrier…pond kind of structure around it and so the water always remains I guess)
The legend of Devipattinam is that when Lord Rama was proceeding towards Lanka in search of his wife Sita, Devi Mahishasuramardini; (the killer of the demon Mahishasura) appeared in his dream. She told Rama that he was suffering misfortune due to the adverse planetary conditions. She directed him to come to Devipattinam and worship the Navagrahas to get relief from his misery.
When Rama came to Devipattinam he did not find any shrine dedicated to the Navagrahas. He made the statues of nine planets, locally known as Navapashanas, out of the sand of the ocean. It is believed that when Rama was creating the Navapashanas, Lord Jagannatha stopped the waves of the ocean so that Rama could carry out the worship undisturbed. Hence, Lord Jagannatha is also known here as ‘Kadaladaitha Perumal’.
Some pics can be found at http://www.southdreamz.com/temples/other-temples/the-navabashanam-temple-devipattinam/
You can see here how people get into the water to pray…
But the place has been maintained very badly….dirt everywhere…
Then we passed the famous Pamban bridge……we stopped on the bridge….
Salty wind was blowing and almost sweeping us off our feet….I mean it literally….the wind was so powerful.
The view was beautiful. We can see the bridge built for the train to go. This bridge….which is a cantilever…..would open up to let ships go through. Going by train would be a great experience I guess……and scary….if you know what happened to the train in Danushkodi…. We’ll come to that later…
The Pamban Bridge on the Palk Strait connects Rameswaram to mainland India.
Some beautiful pics at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamban_Bridge and http://ephotoz.blogspot.com/2007/03/pamban-bridge-rameswaram.html
We have been to Rameshwaram when I was in primary school….and I still have photos standing on the same Pamban bridge with the wind blowing hard on us…..memories floated in my mind….
I remembered that we stayed at a hotel right next to the beach from where we walked to the temple….
The compound walls of the hotel had holes from which we could see the beach…. I had vowed to myself that I would go back home and draw that beautiful scenery that I could see through the hole…. I had tried it also….but unfortunately my drawing skills dint keep up to my expectations and I never managed to draw it…
but yes… I have the picture in mind….every bit of it…
those days…..cannot rewind time….
Unwilling to get back into the car….we anyway sat in and proceeded towards Rameshwaram…
