Ghost towns have always a certain mystery around them or we can say history, a reason for converting from populated place to no man’s land. Dhanushkodi, at the south-eastern tip of Pamban Island in Tamil Nadu, is one of the Ghost Town in India. It’s not at all a haunted place but was abandoned after being completely destroyed in 1964 Rameswaram Cyclone.
We went to Rameshwaram to visit the temple and after darshan, we decided to visit other tourist spots or mythological places in or nearby Rameshwaram and we got to know about this place. The experience was so surreal and thrilling that I decided to share with all of you.
- buses going towards Dhanushkodi
Dhanushkodi is approximately 20 K.m from Rameshwaram Town, bordered by the Bay of Bengal on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other side. We went in taxi till the check-post of Dhanushkodi. Lots of maxi-van or buses and jeeps were parked there for ferrying purpose as it was the end of the road. We took tickets and sat in the van, little anxious as we were not able to figure out that how can a van take us through the sea but as the journey started, van started driving parallel to the coastline and in few minutes we were passing through the sea as water was on the both sides of our van and we all were shouting with excitement and were thrilled. Those memories still give me sweet shivering. One side of the van was endless pristine water, fishes swimming inside it and I was mesmerized by the beauty around us.
After 20-30 minutes, we were on the island, and all the tourist came down. In the starting, there is one small temple of lord-Hanuman and in front of the temple one floating stone is kept on which Ram is carved. The priest of the temple told us that it is the same stone with which the bridge was formed in Ramayana period by all the ape-men to reach Lanka, famously known as Ram-Setu or Adam’s-Bridge.
- Floating stone used for Rama Setu
When Ravan, king of Lanka, took Sita the wife of Lord Rama. Rama came here in the search of Sita and found that Sita is prisoned in Lanka and in-between is the sea. So his army of ape-men made this bridge with stones. Earlier stones were not floating, so they wrote Rama on each stone and started throwing in the water and it was floating and thus Ram-Setu was formed from Dhanushkodi to Sri-lanka, Mannar island. We enjoyed the view and told this story to our kids and then started visiting the island.
- Ruins of city destroyed in cyclone
This place has ruins of Railway station, church, post-office, police-station, and school………footprints of past. Ruins were covered in the sand, I started visualizing the town in its happier times, smiled for an instant but came back to reality in next moment realizing the universal truth of life….no matter who you are and how much you have, ending is always same for everyone, everything will be left here only …..This type of thought always strikes in my mind whenever I visit historic places. After leaving the trail of my thoughts, I noticed that lots of fishermen also stay here and small shops in the shacks were also present with sea-shell items. I noticed that the locals were drinking water from the ground as between the sand there were small pits where they have kept the salt free water for drinking.
- Pits in the sand for salt-free drinking water
After enjoying the peace and solitude of this place and capturing the sunset beauty at the end of land where the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet, we left with the memories of a lifetime!
Important Points:
- Reach Rameshwaram by bus or train.
- From Rameshwaram take taxi or bus to reach Dhanus Kodi checkpoint as it is 20 k.m from town.
- From check-point take minibusses for going to the island. Enjoy the peace and beauty of this place.
- Keep some snacks and water, caps for kids and adults.
** All the pictures used in this blog is from the internet as due to my son’s exploration, I lost my collection of pictures!
Travel with Swati 