Rama Setu

"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’."

"Life is Life, Awakened to Divine Light {Within} every moment with Positive Attitude & Perceptive without Advaita ( Duality)."

"Adam's Bridge (Tamil: ஆதாம் பாலம் ātām pālam), also known as Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu (Tamil: இராமர் பாலம் Irāmar pālam, Sanskrit: रामसेतु, rāmasetu), is a chain of limestone shoals, between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island, off the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka.
Geological evidence suggests that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka."

"The bridge was first mentioned in the ancient Indian Sanskrit Epic Ramayana of Divine Saint Valmiki.
The name Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu (Sanskrit; setu: bridge) refers to the bridge built by the Vanara (ape men) army of Lord Rama in Hindu mythology, which he used to reach Lanka and rescue his wife Sita from the Rakshasa (Demons) king, Ravana. The Ramayana attributes the building of this bridge to Rama in verse 2-22-76, naming it as Setubandhanam, a name that persists until today."

"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’.

http://world-amazingnature.blogspot.in/2012/01/adams-bridge-1750000-year-old-man-made.html

"The space footages of the Ram Setu provided by NASA clearly show the irrefutable evidence of the bridge link. NASA rejected the legend and 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. The Indian Government had rejected the legend and refused to acknowledge that Ram or his army ever existed."

"The picture shows clearly the “Adam's bridge,” purported by both some scientists and sages, to be the ancient Indian King Rama’s Bridge."

Lord Rama’s Bridge extends between Rameswaram in India to present day Sri Lanka. This is the bridge Hanuman and Rama’s army of “monkeys” built for Ramas army to cross over from India to Lanka."

"Lord Rama went across the ocean into Lanka to rescue Sita from the demon Ravana. This story is recorded in the great Indian epic, The Ramayana.

"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 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 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 Shri Rama Empire, the hero of the epic, to rescue his 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’.

http://world-amazingnature.blogspot.in/2012/01/adams-bridge-1750000-year-old-man-made.html

"The space footages of the Ram Setu provided by NASA clearly show the irrefutable evidence of the bridge link. NASA rejected the legend and 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. The Indian Government had rejected the legend and refused to acknowledge that Ram or his army ever existed."

"The Indian archaeologists found no evidence for the existence of Lord Ram and his army of monkeys. According to The Financial Times, the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court stated that the Ramayana could not “incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the events depicted therein”.

Photo : NASA Satellite image of the Rama Setu connecting India and Sri Lanka. Next photo : The Palace Ruins of Ravana in Sri Lanka!!
By: Dawning Golden Crystal Age

"Adam's Bridge (Tamil: ஆதாம் பாலம் ātām pālam), also known as Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu (Tamil: இராமர் பாலம் Irāmar pālam, Sanskrit: रामसेतु, rāmasetu),[1] is a chain of limestone shoals, between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island, off the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Geological evidence suggests that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka."

"The bridge is 18 miles (30 km) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast). Some of the sandbanks are dry and the sea in the area is very shallow, being only 3 ft to 30 ft (1 m to 10 m) deep in places, which hinders navigation. It was reportedly passable on foot up to the 15th century until storms deepened the channel: temple records seem to say that Rama’s Bridge was completely above sea level until it broke in a cyclone in 1480 CE."

"Contents"

"The bridge was first mentioned in the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic Ramayana of Valmiki. The name Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu (Sanskrit; setu: bridge) refers to the bridge built by the Vanara (ape men) army of Lord Rama in Hindu mythology, which he used to reach Lanka and rescue his wife Sita from the Rakshasa king, Ravana. The Ramayana attributes the building of this bridge to Rama in verse 2-22-76, naming it as Setubandhanam, a name that persists until today."

"The sea separating India and Sri Lanka is called Sethusamudram meaning "Sea of the Bridge". Maps prepared by a Dutch cartographer in 1747, available at the Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal Library show this area as Ramancoil, a colloquial form of the Tamil Raman Kovil (or Rama's Temple). Another map of Mughal India prepared by J. Rennel in 1788 retrieved from the same library called this area as "the area of the Rama Temple", referring to the temple dedicated to Lord Rama at Rameswaram. Many other maps in Schwartzberg's historical atlas and other sources such as travel texts by Marco Polo call this area by various names such as Sethubandha and Sethubandha Rameswaram."

"The western world first encountered it in "historical works in the 9th century" by Ibn Khordadbeh in his Book of Roads and Kingdoms (c. 850 CE), referring to it is Set Bandhai or "Bridge of the Sea". Later, Alberuni described it. The earliest map that calls this area by the name Adam's bridge was prepared by a British cartographer in 1804, probably referring to an Abrahamic legend, according to which Adam used the bridge to reach a mountain (identified with Adam's Peak) in Sri Lanka, where he stood repentant on one foot for 1,000 years, leaving a large hollow mark resembling a footprint."

"Location"
Historical map of Adam's Bridge and environs, prior to the cyclone of 1964

Adam's Bridge starts as chain of shoals from the Dhanushkodi tip of India's Pamban Island and ends at Sri Lanka's Mannar Island. Pamban Island is semi-connected to the Indian mainland by 2 km long Pamban Bridge. Mannar Island is connected to mainland Sri Lanka by a causeway. The border between India and Sri Lanka is said to pass across one of the shoals constituting one of the shortest land borders in the world. Adam's bridge and neighbouring areas like Rameswaram, Dhanushkodi, Devipattinam and Thirupullani are mentioned in the context of various legends in Ramayana."

"Transportation and navigation"
Rail Bridge from India Mainland to Pamban Island
The Pamban railway bridge, which connects the Pamban island with the Indian mainland was constructed in 1914."

"Pamban Island (Tamil Nadu, India) with its small port of Rameswaram is about 2 km from mainland India. The Pamban Bridge crossing the Pamban channel links Pamban Island with mainland India. It refers to both: a road bridge and a cantilever railway bridge. Small boats would go below the 2065 m long road bridge and the railway bridge would open up.

The problem in navigation exists because big ships can't travel in the shallow waters of the Pamban channel. Dredging in this channel would cost more than dredging a channel in the Rama Setu area, where the waters are comparatively deep and lesser earth would have to be dredged. Hence, in 2001, the Government of India approved a multi-million dollar Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project that aims to create a ship channel across the Palk Bay cutting across Rama Setu. Various organizations have opposed the project based on religious, economic and environmental grounds and have sought the implementation of one of the alternative alignments considered during the earlier stages of the discussion.

"A ferry service linked Dhanushkodi in India with Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The service was part of the Indo-Ceylon Railway service during the British Rule. One could buy a railway ticket from Chennai to Colombo, whereby people traveled by rail from Chennai to Pamban island, go by ferry to Talaimannar, and then go again by rail to Colombo. In 1964, a cyclone completely destroyed Dhanushkodi, as a train was about to enter the station. The tracks and the pier and heavily damaged along the shores of Palk Bay and Palk Strait. Dhanushkodi was not rebuilt and the train then finished its journey at Rameswaram. There was a small ferry service from there to Talaimannar, but it was suspended around 1982 because of the fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and the separatist LTTE."

"Geological evolution"

"Considerable diversity of opinion and confusion exists about the nature and origin of this structure. In the 19th century, there were two prevalent theories explaining the structure. One considered it to be formed by a process of accretion and rising of the land, while the other surmised that it was formed by the breaking away of Sri Lanka from the Indian mainland. The friable calcerous ridges are broken into large rectangular blocks, which perhaps gave rise to the belief that the causeway is an artificial construction."

"According to V. Ram Mohan of the Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Studies of the University of Madras "reconstruction of the geological evolution of the island chain is a challenging task and has to be carried out based on circumstantial evidence". The lack of comprehensive field studies explains many of the uncertainties regarding the nature and origin of Adam's Bridge, which essentially consists of a series of parallel ledges of sandstone and conglomerates that are hard at the surface and grows coarse and soft as it descends to sandy banks."

"Studies have variously described the structure as a chain of shoals, coral reefs, a ridge formed in the region owing to thinning of the earth's crust, a double tombolo, a sand spit, or barrier islands. It has been reported that this bridge was formerly the world's largest tombolo before it was split into a chain of shoals by the rise in mean sea level few thousand years ago."

"Based on satellite remote sensing data, but without actual field verification, Marine and Water Resources Group of Space Application Centre (SAC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) states that Adam's Bridge comprises 103 small patch reefs lying in a linear pattern with reef crest (flattened, emergent – especially during low tides – or nearly emergent segment of a reef), sand cays (accumulations of loose coral sands and beach rock) and intermittent deep channels. The coral reefs are designated by the different studies variously as ribbon and atoll reefs."

"The geological process that gave rise to this structure has also been attributed to crustal downwarping, block faulting, and mantle plume activity by one study, while another theory attributes it to continuous sand deposition and the natural process of sedimentation leading to the formation of a chain of barrier islands related to rising sea levels. Another theory affirms that the origin and linearity of the Adam's bridge may be due to the old shoreline – implying that the two landmasses of India and Sri Lanka were once connected – from where coral reefs evolved.

"Another study explains the origin the structure due to longshore drifting currents which moved in an anticlockwise direction in the north and clockwise direction in the south of Rameswaram and Talaimannar. The sand was supposedly dumped in a linear pattern along the current shadow zone between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar with later accumulation of corals over these linear sand bodies. In a diametrically opposing view, another group of geologists propose crustal thinning theory, block faulting and a ridge formed in the region owing to thinning and asserts that development of this ridge augmented the coral growth in the region and in turn coral cover acted as a `sand trapper'.[citation needed]

The tombolo model affirms a constant sediment source and a strong unidirectional or bi-directional (monsoonal) longshore current.[citation needed] One study tentatively concludes that there is insufficient evidence to indicate eustatic emergence and that the raised reef in south India probably results from a local uplift.[ Other studies also conclude that during periods of lowered sea level over the last 100,000 years, Adam's Bridge has provided an intermittent land connection between India and Sri Lanka, which according to famous ornithologists Sidney Dillon Ripley and Bruce Beehler supports the vicariance model for speciation in some birds of the Indian Subcontinent."
"Age"
"Geological Survey of India (GSI) carried out a special programme called “Project Rameswaram” that concluded that age data of corals indicate that the Rameswaram island has evolved since 175,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating of samples in this study suggests that the domain between Rameswaram and Talaimannar may have thus been exposed around 18,000 years ago.[ Thermoluminescence dating by GSI concludes that the sand dunes of Dhanushkodi to Adam's bridge started forming only about 500–600 years ago."

"Investigation by Centre for Remote Sensing (CRS) of Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi, led by Professor S.M. Ramasamy dates the structure to 3,500 years.[31][dead link] In the same study, carbon dating of some ancient beaches between Thiruthuraipoondi and Kodiyakarai shows the Thiruthuraipoondi beach dates back to 6,000 years and Kodiyakarai around 1,100 years ago. Another study suggests that the appearance of the reefs and other evidence indicate their recency, and a coral sample gives a radiocarbon age of 4020±160 years BP.
Early surveys and dredging efforts
Pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mannar, c.a. 1926

"Owing to shallow waters, Adam's bridge presents a formidable hindrance to navigation through the Palk strait. Though trade across the India-Sri Lanka divide has been active since at least the first millennium BCE, it has been limited to small boats and dinghies. Larger ocean-going vessels from the West have had to navigate around Sri Lanka to reach India's eastern coast.

Eminent British geographer Major James Rennell, who surveyed the region as a young officer in the late 18th century, suggested that a "navigable passage could be maintained by dredging the strait of Ramisseram [sic]". However little notice was given to his proposal, perhaps because it came from "so young and unknown an officer", and the idea was only revived 60 years later."

"In 1823, Sir Arthur Cotton (then an Ensign), was trusted with the responsibility of surveying the Pamban channel, which separates the Indian mainland from the island of Rameswaram and forms the first link of Ram Setu. Geological evidence indicates that this was at one point bridged by a land connection, and some temple records suggest that the connection was broken by violent storms in 1480. Cotton suggested that the channel be dredged to enable passage of ships, but nothing was done until 1828, when some rocks were blasted and removed under the direction of Major Sim."

"A more detailed marine survey of Ram Setu was undertaken in 1837 by Lieutenants F. T. Powell, Ethersey, Grieve and Christopher along with draughtsman Felix Jones, and operations to dredge the channel were recommenced the next year.[34][36] However these, and subsequent efforts in the 19th century, did not succeed in keeping the passage navigable for any vessels except those with a light draft.[2]
Sethusamudram shipping canal project."