THE RESIDENCY TOWERS RAMESWARAM

Rameswaram is a narrow finger of land gloved in brilliant blue waters. Waters from the confluence of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Beyond captivating natural beauty is its historic and spiritual significance: from Rameswaram it is that Lord Rama embarked to Lanka in the great Indian epic The Ramayana to vanquish the Demon King Ravana who abducted his irresistibly beautiful wife Sita. The war that ensued to retrieve Sita was no less dramatic than the Trojan war fought over the purloined Helen in Homer’s Iliad and readers of Sanskrit will say The Ramayana is far more poetic than The Iliad.

There is no tower taller than of the great seafront Ramanathaswamy Shiva temple of Rameswaram which enshrines the Shiva Lingam that Rama worshipped when he returned victorious from Lanka. The Rameswaram temple is amongst India’s 12 Jyothirlingam Temples. These are temples whose Shiva lingams, ovoid structure symbolising Shiva, occupy sites of fire eruptions from dormant volcanos. They are vortexes that radiate extreme concentrations of “positive” energy. You have to feel it to believe it. Rameswaram, spiritually preeminent, is a swarming place of pilgrimage.

With such profound history, spirituality and entrancing beauty it is surprising that Rameswaram isn’t a top tourist attraction. And so the new Residency Towers emerged to make it one. It is a glamorous receptacle for pilgrims and tourists alike who’ve surged lately in these remote recesses of Tamil Nadu.

The boutique hotel opens into a swank lobby. Immediately on display is a screen flashing Rameswaram’s tremendous attractions that few but the savviest travellers would know of. Most people come to visit the famous temple which is but 1 KM away from the temple, a distance generally traversed barefoot. Even in the hellish heat that melts the roads of this southern extrusion of Tamil Nadu.

Accessing this temple is a privilege, a privilege denied me for precisely 12 years. They say you’ve to be invited to visit a temple. And I wasn’t. A couple of times I travelled to this far-flung temple only to find it shut before I reached. But the launch of the Residency Towers Rameswaram seemed an invitation extended to me.

It is New Year’s Eve. The hotel is sold out. But the canny GM S. Amarnath creates a room. Miracles are possible in this holy land. We’ve just arrived from Tanzania in Chennai and Rameswaram is a million miles away. Flights from Chennai to the nearest airports are sold out. No taxis are available. This is peak tourist season. Worse, I’ve vowed to reach the temple before midnight on 31 Dec 2023. What ensues demonstrates the power of belief. Or the might of the temple?

30 Dec ends without hope of reaching Rameswaram. 31 Dec dawns, someone promises a car and reneges. Flights suddenly open up to Trichy Airport. We reach Trichy. But now there’s no onward transfer to Rameswaram. STRANDED. On a whim I call the GM of a hotel nearby. He dispatches his personal car to take us to Rameswaram which is four hours away. Miracle!

But I now learn temple entry shuts by 8 pm and there are road blocks ahead of the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Trichy!! Roads unclog and I reach Rameswaram JUST in time. Depositing bags at the Residency Towers I fly on feet (not quite bare but in Adidas trainers) and reach the temple JUST in time. Queues to the sanctum stretch. A couple of hours elapse. Then, I behold the long-awaited, long-withheld Jyothirlingam. The energy is palpable.

The energy at the hotel too is palpable, but of a worldly sort, for the tourist-luring New Year’s Eve bash. We remark two sets of tourists. Those of the terrestrial variety gyrating to Bollywood beats, swigging cocktails and eating non-veg (which the hotel doesn’t generally serve with deference to religious sensibilities in the temple town). The party rocks on. The subdued proceedings at the all-day dining all-vegetarian restaurant seem more apposite to the context given the proximity to the sacred temple. Pilgrims are dining early to reach the temple on New Year’s Day for auspicious rituals at 4.00 am. The inspiring discipline about the pilgrims contrasts sharply with the revellers at the New Year’s Eve gala.

On a purely mundane note, the vegetarian food in the restaurant actually surpasses by far the culinary razzmatazz at the gala. The live chaat counter is a top offering with tongue-tickling chaats to rival those in Delhi and Mumbai whilst the pasta betters much of what you will find in metropolises. Expect al dente macaroni in a velveteen cheese sauce, perfect penne arabiata and sublime lasagna on the buffet. But it is the biriyanis, fresh-made rotis and naans and incredibly flavoursome curries, both North and South Indian preparations, that establish the hotel’s culinary rigour. And then there’s a spectacular dessert display, an assemblage of exquisite homemade Indian sweetmeats and a plethora of fancy cakes, all eggless, with ethereal textures effected via a nifty manoeuvring of cream. The bedecked dessert counter is a daily ritual and a dangerous one, the weighing scales will attest.

Breakfast is another story and you wonder who amongst even the most resolute pilgrims would’ve forsaken this splendour to rush to the temple at 4.00 am. But we discover pilgrims go to the temple fasting and return to feast at breakfast, availing of dainty idlis, stunner sambar and masala ghee roast dosa as golden as the sun over the pool outside the restaurant. After breakfast the onslaught on the system is alleviated by a la carte, although the hotel recently introduced a traditional thali.

It is 01 January and as customary in Tamil Nadu this is a day not to slumber in New Year’s Eve hang-over but for spiritual awakening. We are back at the great temple of Rameswaram, the queues are much heftier today. The temple boasts the longest temple corridor in the world with its famous array of carved pillars telescoping seemingly into Infinity. The sluggish advance of the queue gives us time enough to admire the immense and intricately carved yalis, fanciful lion-headed hybrid creatures, that adorn the pillars. Eventually we are before the Jyothirlingam, which seems aglow all the more brilliantly today. Foreigners are not allowed, they contend themselves with cowering before the temple’s august architecture, a masterpiece of Dravidian art, and staggering before its energy.

“Darshan” or the spiritual encounter with the Divine done, we set off to explore Dhanushkodi. GM Mr Amarnath has devised a little itinerary. Past tree-lined, white sanded stretches we drive to Dhanushkodi from where Rama set off to Lanka on the “Ram Sethu” composed of huge floating stones that the Monkey army headed by Hanuman created to convey Rama to Lanka. Satellites even today capture the Rama Sethu from Dhanushkodi to Sri Lanka.

Driving to Dhanushkodi beach on the tip of the Rameswaram Island you remark the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean in different shades of blue streaming along on either side of the road. Suddenly we are on swards of blinding white sand, testimony to the pristine beauty of the surrounds. Sea gulls whoosh off in great gusts from waters flecked white with birds and waves. At Dhanushkodi’s tip the Indian Ocean swirls into the Bay of Bengal in giddy embrace. The setting bewitches, the serenity is hypnotic. You emerge from trance to notice nimble fisherman straddling rocky obtrusions to dip their line into turquoise waters. This protected area shuts at sunset. So a quick dip down in the ocean whose boisterous undercurrents belie the placid veneer of the waters. By sunset the waves are lashing, thrashing, crashing about in wild fury. Time to go.

We stop at several spots depicted in The Ramayana including one where when Sita was slaked with thirst amidst nothing but saline water and Rama slung an arrow into the ocean from which sprang a fount of fresh water. To date at Villundi Theerthamyou can draw fresh water from a well bored into the ocean at that point. Miracle, this. About 20 km away from Dhanushkodi is the Ramar Patham Temple believed to have foot prints of Lord Ram Himself, on a stone. This is thought to be the place where Lord Hanuman told Rama he had discovered Sita in Lanka.

Rameswaram is in festival mood as beauteously sculpted bronze icons are taken in procession around the streets mounted on colourfully garlanded chariots of the gods marvelled at by increasing hordes of foreign tourists.

Indeed, you wonder at the number of foreign tourists at the hotel which you imagined was a pilgrim’s nest. But Mr Amarnath elucidates Rameswaram abounds in attractions and designs another little excursion to present us them. These include a boat ride through searing blue waters that dolphins arc in and our of to the wild Krusadai Island rich in coral reefs and marine life, beckoning snorkelers and diving enthusiasts.

Swami Vivekanand’s association with Rameswaram harks back to 8193 when he reached the island on foot and embarked to America, sponsored by the royal family of Rameswaram, to deliver his historic speech to a global audience on India’s spiritual glory and returned to Rameswaram 4 years later.

The Abdul Kalam Memorial records the inspiring life of India’s former President and consummate rocket scientist from his meagre origins in Rameswaram to his tremendous contribution to science and education.

And then there are countless places, picturesque too, that mark significant episodes from The Ramayana. Indeed, Mr Amarnath enlightens traditionally a ritualistic plunge into the sacred waters of Agnitheertham precedes the entry into the Ramanathaswamy Temple. Legends speak of Lord Rama using these very waters to cleanse himself of the sin he thought he had incurred by slaying the Demon King Ravana of Lanka. We are oblivious to the significance of the Agniteertha, Fire Teertha, which is the ocean sprawled before the temple where the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a bath recently or indeed to the existence of these 22 wells or teerthas which the temple complex harbours, before accessing the temple as As for the 22 wells within the temple, queues stretch to access them… And once you do, Pandemonium descends with a Capital P as thousands of pilgrims gravitate from one well to another, each with unique spiritual relevance, to be doused in a swing of absolving water.

This experience is amongst the 3 craziest things I have ever done. I almost lost life and limb. But I would do it again and again and again, such is the religious fervour.

I return to the temple having noticed a terrific bronze icon of Nataraj, the Dancing Shiva, whilst queuing for the sanctum. When I finally accede to the Nataraj and circumambulate the shrine I realise that this great temple of Rameswaram is the place of samadhi of Maharshi Patanjali who codified yoga and composed the Yoga Sutras. Samadhi is when a great sage in profoundest meditation releases the the Prana or the life principle in the body through the Sahasrara Chakra on the crown. Again, the energy around the samadhi of this great sage is palpable. Myriad lamps glow around, not a single flickers, as if the flame is itself in the poise of Yoga.

Mr Amarnath also has us discover a 2000-year-old Shiva temple in far away Uthirakosamangai legendary for a towering sculpture of Nataraj carved from a monolith of raw emerald. The state remains covered in sandal past year-round to protect the stone and Nataraj is revealed but once annually during a grand ceremony which fetches pilgrims from the world over.

Mr Amarnath finally urges me to discover the destination that is its hotel. The suites are splendid and we’ve had to wait for them. Promised us on 01 January, they were unavailable as a VIP party extended its stay, naturally, given the hotel’s culinary delights (the biriyanis, naan and kormas are addictive). The pool is a little beauty and the spa Amarnath is transforming into a Destination Spa. There’s a bar too for those who prefer spirt to Spirit.

The hotel’s tagline, is “Come as a pilgrim. Leave as a traveller.” Actually, it’s the other way round. Come as a traveller. Leave as a pilgrim. And you keep coming back as a pilgrim. Again and again and again. For Rameswaram has that super natural power that draws you back with the ineluctable force of Destiny.

King Suite from USD 180

https://www.theresidency.com/towers-rameswaram/