RAMESWARAM
TEMPLE:
Ramanathaswamy Temple is Hindhu temple dedicated to god Shiva located on Rameswaram island in the state of Tamilnadu India. It is also one of the
twelve Jothylinga temples.
thousands of pilgrims and tourists visits Ramanathaswamy
temple every day for its sacredness and its architectural beauty.
The Mythical Story
According to the Ramayana,
hindus 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 Rama wanted to have the largestlingam to worship
Shiva. He directed Hanuman, the monkey lieutenant in his army, to
bring the lingam from Himalayas. Since it took longer to bring the lingam, Sita, the wife of Rama, built a small lingam out of the sand
available in the sea shore, which is believed to be the lingam in the sanctum
TEMPLE :
while
Fergusson believes the small
vimana (corridor) in the west
corridor belonging to the 11th or 12th centuries.
The
temple in its current shape is believed to have been built during the 17th
century!
The temple is said to have been sanctioned for construction by
King Kizhavan Sethupathi or Ragunatha Thevar The
contribution of the Jaffana kings of the sethupathy dynasty to the temple was considerable. King Jeyaveera cinkaiariyan (1380 — 1410 CE) shipped stone blocks from koneswaram temple, Trincomalee to the temple to renovate its sanctum sanctorum. Jeyaveera
Cinkaiariyan's successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan (Pararacacekaran V), a trustee
at Rameswaram who also oversaw structural development of this temple and the
promotion of Saivite belief donated part of his revenue to Koneswaram.
Especially to be remembered are the immense sums that were spent during the
tenure of pradani muthira pillai
towards the restoration of the Pagodas which
were falling into ruins, the splendid Chockattan Mantapam or the cloistered
precincts of the temple at Rameswaram that he finally completed. The rulers of Sri lanka contributed to the temple –Parakrama babu (1153-1186 CE) was involved in the
construction of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
The Architecture of
Ramanathaswamy Temple
Ramanathaswamy temple is built in the Style
named as “Dravidian style”. The temple complex was covered by a compound wall (thiru mathil
). The compound wall extends 865 feet in East – West direction and 657
feet in South – North . There are 4 Gopuras (Tower on the top of temple
entrance) in Ramanathaswamy Temple Stands one in each direction.
The Architectural
beauty and the grandeur of the Rameswaram Temple is adorable and
spectacular.
The places of the
Ramanathaswamy Temple can be divided into following Categories (Click on the
Link to know more)
Corridors
Sannathis (Small shrines inside the temple)
Mandapams
Other Places
The outer set of corridors is reputed to be the
longest in the world being about 6.9 m height, 400 feet in each in the east and
west and about 640 feet in north and south and inner corridors are about 224
feet in east and west and about 352 feet each in north and south.Their width
varies from 15.5 feet to 17 feet in the east and west about 172 feet on the
north and south with width varying 14.5 feet to 17 feet. The total length of those corridors is
thus 3850 feet. There are about 1212 pillars in the outer corridor. Their height is about 30 feet from the
floor to the center of the roof. The main tower or rajagopuram is 53 m tall. Most pillars are carved with
individual composition.
