Dhanushkodi
| Dhanushkodi | |||
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| State : |
 India
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| State : | Tamil Nadu | ||
| District : | Ramanathapuram | ||
| Sub-district : | Rameswaram | ||
| Location : | 9 ° 11 ′ N , 79 ° 25 ′ E | ||
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Dhanushkodi (also Danushkodi; Tamil : தனுஷ்கோடி Taṉuṣkōṭi [ ˈd̪anuʂˌkoːɖi ]; lit. "end of the arc") is a place at the tip of the island of Pamban in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the strait between India and Sri Lanka . Dhanushkodi was the end of a railway line and ferry port from which connections to Sri Lanka existed before the place was completely destroyed by a devastating cyclone in 1964 . Dhanushkodi was not rebuilt after the cyclone, today there is only a small fishing settlement on the site.
geography
Dhanushkodi is located 20 kilometers southeast of the pilgrimage town of Rameswaram, about four kilometers from the end of the sandy headland that leads from the island of Pamban in an easterly direction to the Adams Bridge , a chain of islands and sandbanks between India and Sri Lanka. Dhanushkodi is the closest place in India to Sri Lanka: The distance to Talaimannar at the tip of Mannar Island at the other end of Adam's Bridge is only 30 kilometers.
An asphalt road leads from the center of the island of Pamban to a post of the Indian Navy about 4.5 kilometers before Dhanushkodi, from there there is only one sandy road. Today's Dhanushkodi consists of a few thatched fishermen's huts, modest places of prayer, a drink stand and various remains of walls, etc. a. a train station, a church, a water tank and a post office. The population is likely to be less than 500.
Religious meaning
Dhanushkodi has a religious meaning for Hindus . The Adam's Bridge (or Rama Bridge) is identified with the bridge that the god Rama, according to the epic Ramayana, built to Lanka to save his wife Sita from being kidnapped by the demon king Ravana . The name of the place is derived from the arch of Ramas, with the end of which Rama is said to have denoted the place from which the bridge was to be built. Many pilgrims combine the pilgrimage to Rameswaram with a swim in the sea at Dhanushkodi, where the waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet.
Cyclone 1964
Until 1964, Dhanushkodi was the most important place on the island alongside Rameswaram. The place had a train station, which was the end point of a railway line coming from Chennai (Madras) via Madurai , and a ferry port from which passenger ferries led to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The Indo-Ceylon Express the Southern Railway , then also Boat Mail called regularly drove the 675 km long route from the station Egmore in Chennai for Dhanushkodi Pier. The train journey took 19 hours. The ferry then set off from Dhanushkodi, which took about three and a half hours to get to Talaimannar. From Talaimannar you could continue to Colombo with the Northern Line .
On the night of December 22nd to 23rd, 1964, Dhanushkodi (like the whole island) was hit by a cyclone with extreme wind speeds and waves several meters high. The headland was flooded. A train just entering the station destroyed, 128 people died here. The place, the railroad and wharfs were literally washed into the sea. The number of victims was estimated at more than 1,800.
The place has not been rebuilt. The ferry connection, which was interrupted by the destroyed pier systems at both ends of the route, was later replaced by a ferry between Rameswaram and Talaimannar, which was also discontinued in 1984/85 due to the civil war in Sri Lanka . The railway line in Sri Lanka from Madawachchiya to Talaimannar has been abandoned.
Personalities
- APJ Abdul Kalam (1931–2015), aeronautical engineer and politician
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Article in The Hindu of March 6, 2004 on Dhanushkodi, accessed April 4, 2010
- ↑ Article on the Indian Railway Fan Club website, accessed on April 4, 2010, Sri Lanka Railway Forum, Rail Connections to India ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 4, 2010
- ^ Meteorological report , accessed on April 4, 2010
- ^ Indian Railways Fan Club website , accessed April 4, 2010.
- ^ Peter WB Semmens: Catastrophes on rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 169.
