Rameswaram

Rameswaram lies on Pamban island, a hook of sand and coral in the Gulf of Mannar within sight of Sri Lanka, and its pull is entirely mythic: Rama is said to have installed a Shiva linga here to atone after the war in Lanka, which makes the town both a Char Dham site and one of the twelve jyotirlingas. The Ramanathaswamy Temple grew over five centuries, largely under the Sethupathi rulers of Ramnad, and its third prakaram is the longest temple corridor in India, roughly 197 metres on the longer side, its granite pillars carved with rearing lions and painted in bands of ochre and red. Pilgrims are led through twenty-two theerthams, wells inside the complex, and doused bucket by bucket before darshan; you emerge soaked and blinking into the smell of camphor.

The rest of the island rewards a slow drive. The 1914 Pamban rail bridge has been replaced by a vertical-lift span, and the parallel road bridge gives the classic view of turquoise water on both sides. Twenty kilometres southeast lies Dhanushkodi, where a cyclone in December 1964 destroyed the town and drowned a passenger train; church walls and a ruined station stand in the dunes, and the tar runs on to Arichal Munai, where the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean.

A. P. J.

Abdul Kalam grew up here, and his memorial stands at Pei Karumbu.