RAMSETHU - Faith vis-a-vis Reality

Ramsetu is a natural chain of islands, hills, shoals, submerged in Palk Strait from Dhanushkoti to Talaimannar, in which certain gaps have been filled up, indicating the contribution of human hand. One of the two surviving fillings can be seen in the picture revealing well defined boundaries and stone fillings. During visit to Rameshwaram, I got an extra-ordinary opportunity to observe the depth at which a part of Ramsethu was found submerged under the sea which measured 9.5 feet (about 3 meters) on the fisherman’s oar.

Fig. 8: Boundaries looking like ropes & the fillings in between

Ram’s Bridge – references in Ramayan

In Yuddh Kand, sarg 22 (shlokas 45-73) Valmiki has given graphic details of Lord Ram carrying out research and exploration to identify a suitable location for construction of the bridge. After identifying the location, he requested Sugriva to search for an expert Shilpakar who could construct such a bridge. Sugriva recommended the name of Nal, a famous shilpakar, who had the expertise similar to that of Vishwakarma in constructing the bridge. Accordingly Nal was called; he concurred that bridge could indeed to constructed at the location identified by Shri Ram. The construction of this bridge was completed under the supervision of Nal in five days by filling up of the gaps in the existing natural chain of land route consisting of islands, rocks and shoals (6/22/68-73).

The armymen of Lord Ram utilized various tools and implements for uprooting trees like saal, taar, coconut, mango, ashoka, arjun, bakul and bilva etc (6/22/47). With the help of various yantras they transported these stones, trees, creepers, and boulders to the seashore (2/22/60). Shilpakar Nal directed the armymen to stand with long ropes on either side and got the bridge constructed in five days by binding such transported materials together. Even the use of measuring tools has been described (6/22/65).

Rama's Bridge - its satellite image and oceanographic evidences:

The bridge is composed of a series of islands, rocks, and shoals and it is stated to be 30 kilometers long. It is found exactly at the location narrated in Valmiki Ramayan. See NASA picture of this Bridge given above.

Sea level curve prepared by the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, corroborates the fact that sea level was about three meters lower around 5100 BC; thus corroborating the fact that in 5100 BC Ramsethu was above the sea level and could be used as a land route between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka. Thus even fluctuations in sea levels corroborate references to Ramsethu in Ramayan.

Some very Interesting facts about Ramsethu

All attempts to create shipping route by completing the Sethu Samudram project have so far failed. Shri Subramnian Swamy summarized the report dated January 23, 2007 published in the Asian Age stating that “the Dredging Corporation of India’s (DCI) dredger imported from Holland had broken into two and sunk into the sea when it began work on the Ram Setu. The DCI crane that went to pick up the dredger pieces also broke and sank. The Russian engineer consultant who went to inspect the mishap broke his leg.” As a result all efforts made on behalf of the Government so far to destroy remains of Ram Setu have failed and consequently Sethusamudram Shipping Canal could not become a reality.

 We suggest that why not construct a the bridge as several multi-nationals are offering to construct the bridge under BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) scheme? Can one imagine the number of people from India who will walk over this reconstructed Ramsethu every year and the kind of profit the builder as well as Indian and Sri Lankan Governments would be able to earn! The relations between the two neighboring countries would drastically improve.