DN Darshan: Ramanathaswamy Temple, Tamil Nadu

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New Delhi/ 27 July 2016. The auspicious month of Shravan began last week on Wednesday. According to mythology this month is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva.

Dynamite News brings you a series of most glorious places of Lord Shiva. This time we take you to Ramanathaswamy Temple on Rameswaram Island in Tamil Nadu.

Ramanathaswamy Temple is one of the twelve Jyothirlinga temples.

According to the Ramayana, Rama is believed to have prayed to Shiva here to absolve sin of killing a brahmana, committed during his war against the demon king Ravana in Sri Lanka.

The temple is one of the holiest Hindu Char Dhams (four divine sites), the other three being Badrinath, Puri and Dwarka.

History

The primary deity of the temple is Ramanathaswamy (Shiva) in the form of lingam. There are two lingams inside the sanctum - Goddess Sita, build one from sand, residing as the main deity, Ramalingam and the one brought by Lord Hanuman from Kailash called Vishwalingam. Rama instructed that Vishwalingam should be worshipped first since Lord Hanuman brought it - the tradition continues even today.

The temple was expanded during the 12th century by Pandya Dynasty, and its principal shrines sanctum were renovated by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan and his successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan of the Jaffna kingdom.

Architecture

The temple has a high compound wall (madil) on all four sides of the temple premises with huge towers (Gopurams) at the east and west and finished gate towers on the north and south. The temple has striking long corridors in its interior, running between huge colonnades on platforms above five feet high.

There are separate shrines for God Ramanathaswami and Goddess Parvathavardhini separated by a corridor.

The temple has the longest corridor among all Hindu temples in India.

How to reach

Rameswaram is well connected by rail and road with all major cities. Madurai is the nearest Airport which is 167 km from Rameswaram.