Adam’s Bridge – 1,750,000 Year Old Man-Made Bridge between Sri Lanka and India
Ram crossed here to lanka / Photo from joshivatsal
Sri Lanka may not be an Island nation after all – a chain of limestone shoals called Ram Setu or Pamban Bridge remains faint evidence to the former land connection between the Mannar islands of northwestern Sri Lanka and Rameswaram
in the Indian southwestern coast. The 3 ft to 30 ft depth of the sea
surrounding this 30 miles (48 km) long bridge is not good enough to
allow proper navigation. Earlier there used to be a regular ferry
service between Talaimannar of Sri Lanka and Rameswaram of India, which
is currently withheld due to the continuing civil disorder within
Lanka.
Adams Bridge Map
The
first mention of this reportedly man-made bridge was found in the
accounts of Ibn Khordadbeh in his Book of Roads and Kingdoms. Since
then, it has been attributed with several names like Set Bandhai, meaning ‘Bridge of the Sea‘, Rama’s Bridge and Adam’s Bridge.
The Islamic legends state that it was used by Adam to traverse the
route to Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka to repent for 1000 years, during
which he kept standing on one foot. This perhaps explains the large
footprint hollow you can find on the Peak.
On the other hand, the Indian or rather the Hindu legend behind this superbly curved sandstone bridge relates it to the epic Ramayana.
Accordingly, it is deemed to be built by the ‘vanara sena’ (monkey
army) of the glorious incarnation of Shri Rama, the hero of the epic,
to rescue his holy wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana, who ruled
over Lanka. The radiocarbon dating of the bridge verges on around
1,750,000 years, which roughly coincides with the Indian estimate of
the mythical ‘Treta Yuga’.
Virgin
Comics’ Ramayan reinvents the ancient stories of the Ramayana in
graphic-novel style. Below, the Hindu goddess Devi, as reinterpreted by
filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and series artist Mukesh Singh. / Photo from albill
The
space footages of the Ram Setu provided by NASA has neither confirmed
nor rejected these controversial claims. Contrary to the Vaishnava News
Network’s insistence on the Rama legend, after taking its 2002 remote
sensing images, NASA simply stated that the much-hyped bridge was only a
naturally formed chain of shoals and refused to comment on the
possible human involvement in its construction.
Landsat 5 image of Adam’s Bridge / Photo from Global Land Cover Facility, www.landcover.org
Picture taken by NASA in the year 2005 of Shri Ram Setu (Adma Bridge) / Photo from dheerajway
However, opposing ideas have continued to surface about the origin of the bridge. S. Badrinarayanan, the director of the Geological Survey of India along with the head of Post-Graduate Department of Geology and Research Centre, Prof. N. Ramanujam
has given a scientifically inclined explanation of the possible natural
occurrence of the sand banks with the corals on top. The Madras Court
has stuck to the man-made theory.
Rama,
Laksman and their friends building a bridge to Demon country Lanka
where the abducted Sita-devi is being held captive. On every stone the
Name of Rama is written. / Photo from Yadupati
In spite of such controversies, the Ram Setu
has never ceased to attract the attention of geological experts. There
are several theories to suggest the age and formation of this
mysterious bridge. One of these theories attributes the formation of
the bridge to random sand deposition and sedimentation. Another
suggests the opposite movement of the longshore drifting currents along
the landmasses gave rise to the tombolo. Still another team of
geologists proposes the atoll and coral reef composition of the
103-patch ridge to be due to the thinning out of the earth crust,
barrier islands, a sand spit or a local uplift.
Such varied explanations have not diminished the religious value of the Ram Setu
for Indians. The Indian government had planned the prestigious and
expensive Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project in 2001 to improve the
navigation across the Palk Strait. It was shelved primarily because of
the sacred associations of the divine figure of Shri Ram, though
environmental and economic reasons were the other grounds as well. To
push its plan to success, an affidavit was lodged by the Indian
Government in the Supreme Court of India rubbishing the epical notion
of the bridge’s formation.
“Adam’s Bridge”, the narrow ribbon of land joining India to Sri Lanka, viewed from space / Photo from tmosprmo
Yet
the near-destructed Ram Setu stands with all its glory, drawing
thousands of pilgrims every year and continues to baffle the scientists
and theorists world over. Some say that this much-studied bridge was
perhaps what protected the Kerala coastline from the fury of the 2004
Tsunami.
Pamban railway bridge at sunset.
Pamban rail bridge was opened at 1914. It is 2.3Km length – longest sea bridge in India. / Photo from tamilian / photo-capture.co.uk
Pamban rail bridge was opened at 1914. It is 2.3Km length – longest sea bridge in India. / Photo from tamilian / photo-capture.co.uk
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