Rameswaram to Madurai

  Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Thursday, April 30, 2009

Danushkodi is a fishing village near the bigger town of Rameswaram. Here, the Indian ocean, the Gulf of Manar and the Bay of Bengal meet.  It is also the closest point to Sri Lanka in India.  Adam's bridge is "a chain of reefs, sand banks and islets that almost connects Sri Lanka with India, 33km away."  These, reputedly, are the footsteps of Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, when he brought his wife Sita back from Lanka, after being kidnapped by Ravana.  This is another one of the epic scenes in the Ramayana.  The Ramayana is a collection of poems derived from the Mahabharata, which, in turn, is holy writ to the Hindu Religion.  There is a holy shrine made because Rama, "overcome with guilt for killing Ravana," did pooja (a Hindu prayer) on that spot.  It is the only building that survived the 1964 cyclone that destroyed the surrounding area.  One year ago, on our Croatia trip, we saw an excellent exhibit on the Ramayana at the Royal Library in London.

In Madurai we saw the Palace and the Meenakshi Temple. 

Reclining god (which one?)

The Temple was crowded, but the hall of one thousand pillars was neat to see.  Ramesh (our driver and guide) said it is exactly like the one in Rameswaram that we didn't see, so it was good that we got to see this.  The carving was amazing and there was so much!

pillars and statue

pillars

 

The ceiling paintings at the palace were beautiful, though they were being restored so we did not get to see the whole thing.  The restored paintings were quite beautiful and colorful.  The palace's name was Thirumayam.  We all think  we would like to come back after the restoration work is finished.  We all thought it was a very grand palace, but was very different from Mughal palaces and architecture.  Janpal noticed that this palace has one large room which fits everything inside rather than many rooms and one use for each room but many rooms.

pillars

We ate dinner at the Taj Gardens View.  We had relatively good pizza and pasta.  Amiji even had a salad.  It was warm, but she said that was OK.  It was still nice to get the greens.