The drive from Kanyakumari to Rameshwaram is through Tamil Nadu’s farming, industrial and wind farm areas, not necessarily in that particular order. We did cross many water-starved areas towards the end of the drive, made apparent by trolleys of water utensils being taken along the road by women and men alike. The highway is great however, and we made good progress, stopping only twice for lemonade and tea. An online search gave us options for staying the night, and after a quick dinner in the crowded streets before the renowned Ramanathaswamy temple, we retired for the night in plush comfort.
The morning began hot and slow, and the AC strove hard against the sunlit windows while I re-watched X-Men: Apocalypse. They say that the shivling here was prayed to by Ram after his war against Ravan ended with the latter’s death at Ram’s hands. To absolve himself of the sin of Brahman-vadh, or priest/scholar-killing, Ram (mythically the 7th avatar of Vishnu) wished for a shivling from the Himalayas to pray to, but as Hanuman took some time in bringing it (imagine flying in a straight line from the Sri Lanka-facing coast towards Tibet: there and back again, not unlike Bilbo!), Ram’s wife Sita built one out of sand, which is the revered artifact in the temple’s sanctorum. Add to that the mythical presence of the water from 22 kunds to wash away one’s sins, and it starts to justify the presence of thousands of worshipers thronging Pamban Island on which Rameshwaram stands. The Rameshwaram temple lotus and a couple bunches of another white flower from the same venerable place occupy a valued place in my digital library.
Purified, we rolled down the windows to the sea air whipping across the straight stretch of highway to one more place at India’s extremes: Dhanushkodi. From here, the next port is in Sri Lanka. I have Jaffna (at the top of Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was formerly known) on my to-visit list, for reasons more than sightseeing. Anyway, there was a great beach to get some slo-mos, and we obliged the waves and horizon for being so clear while we were there by capturing them in our digital memories as well. This place, along with Kanyakumari, fulfilled my goal for this trip to South India – being at the extremities of our humongous subcontinent. I did Ladakh and Pangong last year in June, so north and south are pretty much covered, even though I will go to the Himalayas every chance I get – not so much the south, mainly due to the fact that I get hot enough near Delhi. Maybe the next winters will see me making another southward sojourn.
The drive back along the same road was quick, all the way to Rameshwaram where we stopped to look in at the panchmukhi (five-faceted) Hanuman statue, as well as a few mythical floating stones that had formed the Ram setu (bridge). Retracing our way over the Pamban bridge, we sped to Madurai to see the famed Meenakshi temple, and its architecture did not disappoint. Particularly impressive was a solid gold tower stretching 20 feet (easily) through the roof of the ground floor. Phones are off-limits, just like the inner areas are to non Hindus. I’m not too sure about those signboards announcing this stipulation, though. Taking in the enormous sanctorums and sculptures, we wandered deep inside the temple, emerging overawed. Another lemonade (though overly commercial, from a juice bar this time) hydrated us and we journeyed on into the night to Thekkady, just above Kumily, in the Idukki district.
opendurbar 