Rama’s bridge to Sri Lanka
January 4, 2007
When I was working on yesterday’s post, I thought it was very interesting to zoom in on the area between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka. It was here that Rama with help from all the animals built a bridge to Sri Lanka so he could get himself and all his army across.
Sri Lanka is on the lower right, with India on the left.
A closer look shows that it indeed may have been possible…and particularly because sea levels were a lot lower in the past. One of the consequences of the tsunami in Mahabalipuram up the coast near Chennai, was that a lot of sand was moved near the shore. About 200 yards off-shore a very large temple became visible. The on-land temples there now are at least 1,200 years old. So the temple that is now underwater off-shore, must have been considerably older and sea levels considerably lower.
Possible? Who knows? At the present time it is 18 miles between the two pieces of land. Even if we assume that it was closer in “those days”, it would be too long for a suspension type of bridge like we have now. The longest currently is about 1.2 miles. So, you’d build a causeway..basically creating a road by piling up rocks and dirt, (which according to the Ramayana is what they did). The longest causeway in the world crosses Lake Ponchatrain to New Orleans at a length of 23 miles. So it could be possible to do something less than 18 miles and it isn’t terribly sophisticated engineering-wise…a big job though.
