Ramanathaswamy Temple Rameswaram Tamil Nadu History and Interesting Facts

Ramanathaswamy Temple Quick Facts

Ramanathaswamy Temple Overview

Ramanathaswamy Temple is located on Rameswaram Island in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which is in the standing of Mannar. This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is also known as Rameshwaram Temple. This temple is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples. In Jyotirlinga "Jyoti" means radiance and "Shivalinga" means image, hence Jyotirlinga literally means "bright image or icon of Supreme Lord Shiva", which this temple is considered as one of the major pilgrimage places of India.

Ramanathaswamy Temple History

The Ramanathaswamy Temple Jyotirlinga is associated with the Ramayana and Rama's triumphant return from Sri Lanka. Rameshwar means "Lord of Rama" in Sanskrit, Shiva. According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, Rama was the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and prayed to Lord Shiva in present-day Sri Lanka to absolve him of the sins he had committed during his war against Ravana.

But the present shape of the temple was built in the 17th century, with smaller corridors (vimanas) in the corridor dating from around the 11th to the 12th centuries. People say that the temple was built by King Kizhavan Sethupati or Raghunath Kilwan. But the temple was rebuilt from 1380 AD to 1410 AD.

During which stone blocks were sent from Trincomalee for the construction of the temple. The structural development work of this temple was supervised by the successor of Jayavir Senkiriyan, Gunvera Sinkiaryan. He donated some of his revenue for the construction of the temple. Along with this, many rulers of Sri Lanka had also contributed in the construction of the temple.

Ramanathaswamy Temple Interesting Facts

1. The primary deity of the temple is Lord Shiva in the form of Lingam. Also known as Ramanathaswamy.
2. There are two lingams kept in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple which are said to be built by Sita, one called Ramalingam and the other lingam was brought by Hanuman from Mount Kailash.
3. Like all the ancient temples of South India, this temple complex has high walls all around it. Whose height is 865 feet from east to west and 657 feet from north to south.
4. The inner side of the temple has long corridors leading from the middle of the huge colonies of 5 feet high platform.
5. With it a long platform is surrounded on both sides. The longest and oldest aisles are the north and south aisles with pillars leading to the end of each event.
6. The Temple has three corridors. The outer aisle is adorned with a large number of sharp sculptures in pillars, and the length of the outer aisles has the reputation of being the longest corridor in the world. Because their height is about 6.9 meters and length is 3.50 feet, there are 1212 pillars in these corridors and their height is about 60 feet from floor to ceiling center.
7. The Inner corridors of the temple are about 224 feet in the east and west and 352 feet in the north and south and the width of these corridors is 15.5 feet to 1 feet.
8. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the world famous third corridor was built by Muthuramalinga Setu, who lived for forty-seven years and ruled between 1763 AD and 1795 AD.
9. There are 22 Kunds in the premises of this temple in which devotees take bath before performing puja in the temple. However it is not mandatory to do so. Because it is only a religious belief.
10. There are a total of 64 pilgrimages around it on Rameswaram island of Tamil Nadu state of India. According to Skanda Purana, only 24 of these are important pilgrimages and these pilgrimages have been considered very famous since ancient times.

How to reach Ramanathaswamy Temple

• Rameswaram does not have a Railway station, but the other Nearest railway station is located in Chennai which has a good and strong network in Southern Railway. There are 4 daily trains from Rameswaram to Chennai. Two of these trains run regularly. One train runs on Tuesday and one train runs on Saturday.
• Additionally, Rameswaram is well connected to Chennai by road. Buses run regularly from Chennai to Rameswaram. Tourists can reach Rameswaram by Volvo public-private bus as well as state government buses.
• Apart from this, the Nearest Airport to Rameswaram is located in Madurai. Tourists can easily reach the temple by taxi, whose name is Madurai International Airport.