Where Rama worshipped Shiva

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Namaste. Let us take one slow breath together. In. And out.

Today we begin a series on Rameswaram, an island at the south-eastern tip of India, in Tamil Nadu, where the sea is shallow and calm and the water between India and Sri Lanka is dotted with sandbanks. On this island stands the temple of Ramanathaswamy, one of the twelve jyotirlingas, the places where Shiva is worshipped as a pillar of light. Its name means the lord worshipped by Rama. At the temple, and in Tamil homes, you will also hear him called Ramanathar. In this first sitting, we hear why he carries that name.

Over five sittings we will go slowly. Today, the story of Rama's worship on this shore. Next, the two lingas at the heart of the temple. Then the theerthams, the sacred waters. Then the long corridors and the families who built them. And last, the setu, Dhanushkodi, and Rameswaram's place among the four dhams of India.

Picture the island for a moment. It is low and flat, fringed with palm trees and white sand, and on most days the sea around it barely moves. Fishing boats rest on the shore. The town is small, and at its heart, rising above the rooftops, are the gateway towers of the temple. Of the twelve jyotirlingas, this is the one furthest south, and for pilgrims from the north, it has always been the far end of a very long road.

Let us start with the oldest telling we have, the Valmiki Ramayana.

In the Yuddha Kanda, Rama and his army reach the southern sea on their way to Lanka to bring Sita back. The water stretches ahead as far as they can see, and there is no way across. The Ramayana tells that Rama sat on the shore and appealed to the ocean for a way. When the ocean at last appeared before him, it advised that the vanara Nala, son of Vishvakarma, the builder of the gods, could build a crossing.

The Ramayana does not hurry this moment. Rama waits on the shore for days, and when the ocean does not answer, he grows angry and takes up his bow, as if to dry the sea itself. Only then does the ocean rise and speak. It is a very human scene. Even Rama, in this telling, comes to the edge of what he can do, and has to wait.

So Nala leads the building of a setu, a bridge, across the sea, with stones, rocks and trees carried by the whole army. The Ramayana describes the work going on day after day, the noise of it, the trees and boulders thrown into the water, until the setu reaches the far shore and the army crosses over.

Later, after the war, Rama returns to Ayodhya with Sita in the Pushpaka, the flying chariot. As they pass over the sea, the Ramayana tells that Rama shows Sita the places below, one after another, and points out the setu. So in Valmiki, this shore is the place of the great crossing, remembered twice, once on the way to Lanka and once on the way home.

Now, the worship of Shiva here. Different Ramayana traditions remember it at different moments. We will hear them as they are told, and we will not rank them.

In the Ramcharitmanas of Goswami Tulsidas, which so many families in north India read at home, the worship comes before the setu is built. Standing on the shore, Rama installs a Shiva linga with proper rites and worships it. In a line of the Lanka Kand, Tulsidas says it plainly: Rama installed the linga and worshipped it with due rites. From this, the Manas says, the place came to be called Rameswaram.

In the Setu Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana, and in the tradition kept at the temple itself, the worship is remembered after the war, on the way home. Here the story goes like this. Rama wished to worship Shiva on this shore. Hanuman was sent north to bring a linga from the Himalaya. As the auspicious time drew near and Hanuman had not yet returned, Sita shaped a linga from the sand of the shore, and Rama worshipped it. That sand linga, the temple tradition says, is the Ramalingam, the main linga of the temple.

When Hanuman returned with the linga he had brought, the tradition says, it was installed beside the first, and it is called the Vishwalingam, or Kashi lingam. The temple keeps a custom that honours Hanuman's effort: the Vishwalingam is worshipped first each day, before the Ramalingam. We will stay with these two lingas in the next sitting, because there is more in their story than we can hold today.

The Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotra, the hymn that names the twelve jyotirlingas one by one, remembers this place in three short words. In its line on Rameswaram it names Ramesha, the lord of Rama, at the setu. A whole shrine, held in the picture of a bridge.

There is also an old and gentle conversation about the name itself. Rameswaram joins two words, Rama and Ishvara, the lord. Read one way, it means the lord of Rama, the Shiva whom Rama worshipped. Read another way, it can mean the one whose lord is Rama. A popular tradition says Rama and Shiva each read the name in praise of the other. We share it as a story people tell, and we leave you to enjoy both readings.

Notice something in all of these tellings. Whether before the crossing or after the war, whether with a linga from the Himalaya or one of wet sand, Rama stops at the edge of the sea to worship. In the Manas, it is before the hardest task of his life. In the temple tradition, it is after it. It is a picture of beginning and ending great work with prayer.

And notice who is with him. In every telling, Rama is not alone on this shore. Sita is there, or Lakshmana, or Hanuman, or the whole army of vanaras waiting to cross. The worship at Rameswaram is remembered as something done in company, on behalf of many people, at a turning point for all of them.

Now let us walk into the temple.

The Ramanathaswamy temple was built and extended over many centuries. Much of what you see today, including its great corridors, was added under the Sethupathi rulers of Ramanathapuram, who had long served as protectors of the setu and of the pilgrims who came to it. The temple is known for its long pillared corridors. The outer corridor is among the longest in any Indian temple, with rows of carved pillars going on further than your eye can follow. In the early morning, when the corridor is quiet, the light falls through in bands across the floor.

Inside the temple are theerthams, sacred wells and tanks. Theertham is the Tamil form of the word tirtha, sacred water. The temple's own history counts twenty-two within the temple, each with its own name. Many pilgrims first bathe in the sea at Agni Theertham, just outside the eastern gate, and then go from well to well inside the temple, where water is drawn and poured over them. You will see people walking the corridors in wet clothes, quiet and smiling.

And there is a lovely custom that ties the far north and the far south of India together. Many pilgrims carry Ganga water from Kashi to offer at Rameswaram, and take sand from Rameswaram to offer in the Ganga at Kashi. Families keep this custom in their own ways. It is a pilgrimage that touches both ends of the country and joins them.

We will come back to each of these in the sittings ahead, the lingas, the waters, the corridors and the far tip of the island. For now it is enough to stand in the corridor for a moment, in the cool of the morning, and hear the sea somewhere beyond the walls.

Let us gather what we heard.

The Valmiki Ramayana tells of the setu built across the sea from this shore. The Ramcharitmanas says Rama installed and worshipped a Shiva linga here before the setu was built. The Skanda Purana's Setu Mahatmya and the temple tradition remember the worship after the war, with Sita's linga of sand, the Ramalingam, and Hanuman's linga from the north, the Vishwalingam, which is worshipped first. The temple grew under the Sethupathis and is known for its long corridors and its twenty-two theerthams.

One thing to take with you. Rama paused at the edge of the sea to pray, before or after a great task. This week, before one important thing you have to do, pause for ten seconds, and offer it in your own words. And when it is done, pause again, and give thanks.

If you like, let us try it once now. Think of one thing waiting for you today. Hold it in mind for a moment, and offer it quietly, in your own words.

Thank you for sitting with us. In the next sitting, we stay with the two lingas, the one Sita shaped from sand and the one Hanuman brought from the north, and we hear how the tellings differ.

Keep going

• Listen: Where Rama worshipped Shiva
• Next: Two lingas: the one of sand and the one from the north
• हिन्दी में पढ़ें
• All episodes of Rameswaram: the island of Rama's worship