Ramesvaram

Ramesvaram stands on an island between the Indian mainland and Sri Lanka, beside the shallow chain of shoals known as Rama’s Bridge. Its Ramanathaswamy temple is one of the great pilgrimage places of Hindu India. Tradition holds that Rama worshipped Shiva here after his journey to Lanka, linking the shrine with the story of the Ramayana. Pilgrims visit the temple and its sacred waters before crossing the island’s sandy shores.

The temple grew through the patronage of rulers and donors over many centuries. The Sethupatis of Ramnad, whose title is associated with guardianship of the passage to Lanka, were especially connected with the shrine. In the eighteenth century Muthuramalinga Sethupathi sponsored the great outer corridor, whose long rows of carved pillars gave the temple one of its most distinctive features. The island remained a place where a major religious route met the seaways and pearl-fishing coast of the Gulf of Mannar.