Sethukarai * - The Ancient Lord Rama's Bridge to Srilanka * - Proof !

Sethukarai, a pilgrim center, which lies at the distance of 3 k.m. from Thirupullani, which is one of the 108 Divya Desams of lord Vishnu.

The another name of 'Sethukarai' is 'Rathinagharam'. Again 'Sethu' (Hindi) means 'Anai' (dam) in Tamil language. So the Vaishnavites also call this place as 'Thiru Anai'. Nowadays if any Indian has been asked to define the territories of India, he should definitely say that Kashmir at north and the Kanyakumari at south.

But once upon it had been told that Kashmir had been the north and Sethu had been the south, which could be derived from the ancient Ithikasas which says "Aasethu Himachalam" in Sanskrit.

Again the Upanishads are telling about Sethu as Amrutha saisya Sethu: and the Vishnu sagasranamam calls it as Ousstham jaghatha: Sethu:

When and where ever, if the story of Rama could have been written or been translated, there would be the special place for Sethu, from where lord Rama had bridged to Srilanka by the help of His Vanara sena (monkeys army).

Again this is the place where lord Rama had accepted the shelter of Vibhishnan ,who was the younger brother of the demon king Ravana. Vibhiahnan had been neglected by his brother demon Ravana, since he had advised Ravana against the abduction of Rama's wife by him (Ravana).

After having sheltered at the lotus feet of lord Rama, Vibhishnan told Rama that in order to defeat the demon Ravana, they had to reach Srilanka with the 'Vanara Sena' (monkeys army) by passing through the ocean.

For that, he told Rama that lord Rama should call 'Varuna', the rain god, so that he (Varuna) would help them in that critical situation. On heard about Vibhishnan's advice, lord Rama had been in meditation in order to get the help of Varuna,in the sleeping posture on the bed of Tharpai grass, which had been prepared by His brother Lakshmana as per 'agamas' rules.

He had been in that posture for seven days, having thinking about the varuana, as in 'Upavasam' (fasting). But there would be no sign of Varuna, come in front of lord Rama. This annoyed Rama that he would use His 'asthra' (Arrow) to make the ocean to be dried up and through which, they planed to cross that ocean.

Lord Rama,having changed his eyes into flame-red, used His 'Agneya Asthras' from His bow called as 'Gothandam' towards the ocean. His fierce asthras had been omitting the dreadful fire which in turn had dried up the ocean.

On having seen that rare phenomena, the king of the ocean with his wife had surrendered at the lotus feet of lord Rama and asked for the apology. Again the dried ocean had been made into as it before by the grace of 'Kamala nayanan' (lord Rama).

The king of ocean had given Rama an suggestion that one vanaran, named Nalan had the capacity of constructing a dam (here bridge) between Sethu and the Srilanka,since he had been cursed by a sage in his previous birth that anything he would throw into the water would have been not immersed instead it could float!

The Nalan who had been in the vanara sena, once was the son of Vishwa karma, who was the celestial architect of heaven. When his previous birth he had thrown away the 'Salagramam' (one of the holdings of sages) of one sage into the river Ganges, when he was on penance at the bank of river Ganges.

Then the sage cursed him that any thing (like stone) he had thrown into the water couldn't be immersed instead it could float.

The king of Ocean had remembered that incident which could be used as the key factor here to construct the bridge between Sethu to Srilanka. Lord Rama called Nalan and ordered him to construct the bridge as having taken the in charge of architect with the use of the other Vanara soldiers.

At once Nalan started his work. He first did the ritual pooja of lord Vigneshwara for the work to be done success fully. Then the vanara - Nalan installed nine stones made up of 'Navapaashanam' (poisonous herbs mixed in a ratio that it cold be made as medicine) and made it as 'Navagraghas' (nine planets) and worshiped them to help him in the task of constructing that bridge, which (the place) would have been later called as Devi Pattinam.

Then Sugrevan (the king of vanaras) and other vanara leaders had taken all the rocks, trees, of huge in sizes and handed over them to Nalan and he in turn organised them in the order so that it could be floated on the sea water. Under his supervision, the vanara army had constructed the bridge at the length of '100 yojanai ' and the at the width of ' 10 yojanai' ( measurement of distance on those days).

Then Nalan asked Sri Rama to bless the 'Ram-sethu' so as to fulfill the task of the construction of the bridge. Lord Rama embraced him with the ecstasy of solving a long term problem. Then lord Rama accompanied with Sugrevan, Neelan, Nalan, Angathan (all - great warriors of vanara sena) and His brother Lakshmana marched towards Lanka on the new built Ram-sethu.

In Langa ,lord Rama defeated and killed Ravana at the fierce battle and returned to His home town Ayothiya with His wife Sita, His brother Lakshmana and the great vanara warrior lord Hanuman. Lord Hanuman had been like the sincere servant of lord Rama forever.