All the big journeys start from Delhi. So I boarded on Tamil Nadu Exp from Delhi to Chennai. Chennai is about 2100 Km from Delhi. The nearest railway station for Dhanuskodi is Rameshwaram. Being a major town, Rameshwaram is well connected by trains from nearly every corner of Tamil Nadu and even far off places. I boarded Rameswaram Expr which travelled about 600 km to reach Rameshwaram.
Sri Lanka is just 31 kilometers away from Dhanushkodi.
Bordered by the Bay of Bengal on one and the Indian Ocean on the other,
Dhanushkodi is one of the most spectacular stretches of Tamil Nadu.
Dhanushkodi was a busy
township with European bungalows, church, temple and even a railway station,
custom office, post office school, hospital and other govt offices building.
Haunting Story of Dhanushkodi by Tsunami on
Night of 1964 December 22
While entering
Dhanushkodi railway station, train No.653, Pamban-Dhanushkodi Passenger, a
daily regular service which left Pamban with 110 passengers and 5 railway
staff, was only few hundred yards before Dhanushkodi Railway station when it
was hit by a massive tidal wave.
The entire train was
washed away killing all 115 on board. A few meters ahead of Dhanushkodi, the
signal failed. With pitch darkness around and no indication of the signal being
restored, the driver blew a long whistle and decided to take the risk.
Minutes later, a huge
tidal wave submerged all the six coaches in deep water. The tragedy that left
no survivors also destroyed the Pamban bridge, which connected the mainland of
India to Rameshwaram Island. The bridge has now been rebuilt.
Information has been
received that a portion of the engine is visible six inches above water. With
communication virtually cut off, the impact of the cyclone could reach Chennai
only after several hours.
Before the 1964
storm, there was a train service up to Dhanushkodi called Boat Mail from Madras
Egmore (Now Chennai Egmore) and the train linked to a steamer for ferrying
travelers to Ceylon.
The storm was unique
in many ways. It all started with a formation of a depression with its center
at 5N 93E in South Andaman Sea on 17 December 1964. On 19 December it
intensified into a cyclonic storm.
The Rameshwaram storm
was not only formed at such low latitude but also intensified into a severe
cyclonic storm at about the same latitude is indeed a rare occurrence.
After 21 December
1964, its movement was westwards, almost in a straight line, at the rate of 250
miles (400 km) to 350 miles (560 km) per day.
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| Pamban Bridge |
Pamban Bridge was also washed away by the high tidal
waves in this disaster. Eyewitness accounts recollected of how the surging
waters stopped just short of the main temple at Rameshwaram where hundreds of
people had taken refuge from the fury of the storm. Following this disaster,
the Government of Madras declared the town as Ghost town and unfit for living
after the storm. Only few fisherfolks now live there.
The route, which once
linked India and Sri Lanka on the ‘Boat Mail,’ was never restored, though the
remains of the cyclone still stand muted at Dhanushkodi, reminding one of the
scale of the destruction wrought by nature that day.
Dhanhukodi Beach
During the bumpy
ride, Taxi driver pointed us at the remains of the rail tracks covered with
sand, and those of the school, the hospital and office buildings. He also shows
us the village that includes some 50 households staying in makeshift thatched
houses.
They say that Bay of Bengal is male in Dhanushkodi and
female in Rameswaram, where it embraces Indian Ocean, after devastating
seven-km sand strip separating them.
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| Dhansukodi Bea |
We roamed around in
the village and found some of the fishermen with their boats collecting their
catch for the day. We also saw a few women washing clothes near a well and
wonder where they get their water from. There seem to be a few wells that have
salty water that people use for washing clothes and utensils.
Before the 1964 cyclone, Dhanushkodi was a
flourishing tourist and pilgrimage town.
Since Ceylon (Now Sri
Lanka) is just 19 miles (31 km) away, there were many ferry services between
Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar of Ceylon, transporting travelers and goods across
the sea. There were hotels, textile shops and dharmshalas catering to these
pilgrims and travelers.
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| Last BSNL Tower of Dhanuskodi Beach |
At the “land’s end” terminus of the peninsula to the southeast of Dhanushkodi begins the chain of rocks and islets known as Rama’s Bridge. These lead approximately 19 miles across the Paik Strait to Mannar Island on the northwestern tip of Sri Lanka.
I found there a last Mobile Tower of BSNL, which was
getting good signals, by which I was connected with my people. Wow; My mobile
was receiving signals of Sri Lanka.
Dhanuskodi
as in Hindu Mythology
The name Dhanushkodi
sounds musical. In local parlance, Dhanushkodi means ‘Bow’s end’. The gently
shaped shoreline here does indeed suggest a bow.
Hindu scriptures says
that at the request of Vibhishana, brother of Ravan and ally of Rama, Rama
broke the Sethu with one end of his bow and hence the name Dhanushkodi, Dhanush
meaning Bow and Kodi meaning end.
It is also said that
Rama marked this spot for Setu with one end of his famous bow. Bath in holy
Sethu at the junction of the two seas normally precedes the pilgrimage to
Rameswaram. A series of rocks and islets found in a line are shown as remnants
of the ancient Setu also called as Rama’s Bridge.
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| A village WOMAN of Dhanuskodi Beach |
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| A local Man at Dhanuskodi Beach |
It is said that Pilgrimage to Kashi will be completed only after the worship at Rameswaram besides a holy bath in Dhanushkodi at the Confluence of Mahodadhi (Bay of Bengal) and Ratnakara (Indian Ocean). Setu is the Sanskrit word to denote a bridge or causeway. It has now acquired a special significance to mean the bridge across the ocean constructed by Ram to reach Lanka.
A
memorial erected near the Dhanushkodi bus stand reads as follows:
“A
cyclone storm with high velocity winds and high tidal waves hit Dhanushkodi
town from 22 December 1964 midnight to 25 December 1964 evening causing heavy
damages and destroying the entire town of Dhanushkodi”
At Dhanushkodi one can see the deep and
rough waters of Indian Ocean meeting the shallow and calm waters of Bay of
Bengal. Since the sea is shallow here, one can walk into Bay of Bengal and
witness the colorful corals, fishes, seaweeds, star fishes and sea cucumber
etc.
Entering
the ghost town, I was caught in a time warp.
Exploring the ruins
along the desolate coastline, I found a roofless, battered edifice, which
looked like it must have once been a church. Inside, a pedestal, which could
have been the altar, stood intact. A sense of peace overwhelmed me as I stood
inside, gazing at the unscathed altar.
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| Ruins of A Church |
At Main land of now a ghost town Dhanushkodi
beach: The last south eastern land of India.
I could imagine the
pews packed with a choral-singing congregation and the church resonating with
prayers and the pastor preaching sermons during a Sunday morning mass.
Moving on I found
that the sand had gobbled up everything in the course of time except for the
crumbling walls of a few scattered buildings with exposed bricks that stand as
mute witness to the terrible tragedy in which a storm washed away this hamlet.
I came across the
four-pillared structure of a water tank and stumbled upon the Dhanushkodi
railway station, a solid stone structure that is a sad reminder of the ferocity
of the storm and the havoc created by the raging sea.
Further to the tank
are some ruins of the quarters for railwaymen. In some places the meter gauge
tracks were discernible half-hidden under the sand. These were the rails that
carried the Boat Mail to Dhanushkodi.
There is a big
building that was once a school, two-thirds of the insides strangely covered
with mounds of sand. It would have housed school kids once, most of who were
probably washed away that fateful day in the storm.
Strolling
among the ruins, I could not believe that the now abandoned village was once a
bustling center for travel and trade, connecting India and Sri Lanka with a
railway and ferry service.
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| Ruins of Railway Station |
I just walked on the beach, went little inside the water, to the end of the peninsula where the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet. I could gaze upon Adam’s Bridge, the chain of reefs, sandbanks and the islets that almost connect Sri Lanka with India. There was no turbulence, only peaceful blue Bay of Bengal.
The winds were so soothing, full of
moisture, when it touches; I felt I was never touched by something so pure. The
water was clean, the sand was cleaner. What a fun adventurous ride that was, although the water is
shallow but still you feel the thrill of going inside the sea, the boats on the
left and lot of seagulls flying. The
winds were so soothing, full of moisture, when it touches; I felt I was never
touched by something so pure. The water was clean, the sand was cleaner.
It was
absolutely wonderful! Seeing two oceans meet is a heart-warming sight and the
feeling. Water from two oceans was brushing under our feet … amazing. I had
been dying to see this place.This point of this tour just made my entire trip--
A golden memory.
If
you have the ears to listen the silence too. You may hear the sounds of cries,
the recitements of the prayers in the remnants of the Catholic Church, the
noises from the broken pieces of busy railway station and the port office.
The End