An 1860’s account of Adam’s Bridge Reef by James Emerson Tennent in his book on Ceylon.
On leaving the temple, we rounded the western point of the island, and entered the gulf of Manaar, by the Paumbam Passage, which here intersects Adam’s Bridge.
The advantages of this narrow channel are so striking, and the facilities already afforded by its enlargement are so highly appreciated, that surprise is excited that a work of such imperial importance as the deepening of this channel should have been so long deferred, and so imperfectly accomplished, when at last undertaken.
Such is the circuit that a vessel is obliged to make in sailing -from Bombay to Madras, in order to guard against calms on the line, and to weather the Maldives and Ceylon, that practically she ” performs a voyage of five thousand miles, although the real distance by sea does not exceed fifteen hundred.”‘
The barrier that here obstructs the communication between Palk’s Bay and the Gulf, — appropriately called the ” dam,” — is about a mile and quarter in length.
The rocks, which are flat upon the upper surface, have been so curiously broken up and intersected by the action of the waves, that they present the closest possible resemblance to deliberate arrangement, and ” bear every appearance of having been placed there by art.
Formerly, the fissure, through which small craft aloue could pass, was but thirty-five yards wide, with a maximum depth of little more than six feet of water. Lately, this passage has been so enlarged and improved, that vessels drawing ten feet may venture through it in safety.
The composition of this singular reef has been already alluded to, and recent examinations have shown that, instead of being a remnant of the original rock, by which Ceylon is supposed to have been once connected with the Indian continent, it is in reality a comparatively recent ridge of conglomerate and sandstone covered with alluvial deposits, carried by the cm-rents and heaped up at this particular point, whilst the
gradual rising of the coast has contributed to give the reef its present altitude.
BALD.HUS relates the improbable story, that in 1057 fifteen Portuguese frigates, chased by the Dutch cruisers, escaped through the passage of
Paumbam ; a circumstance which he accounts for by the still more unlikely conjecture, that the natives in charge of the channel had the power of adjusting the depth of the water by ” either laying in or removing certain stones from the entrance.
It appears to be sandstone of a which last has more the appearance of indurated gravel than rock.”— Major SIM’S Report on Adam’s Bridge, 1828 ; see Capt STEWART’S Retmrt to the Governor of Ceulon, 1837.
The Dutch, although they adopted the popular theory that Ceylon had been separated from India by a sudden convulsion, entertained doubts of the primary formation of Adam’s Bridge, and VALENTIN suggests that its origin is referable to the deposit of sand at the point where the. currents meet at the change of the monsoons
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Shipping and road transport minister T.R. Baalu has revealed that “no less than six BJP ministers” in the previous NDA government were involved in the final selection of the present route of the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project”.
“Arun Jaitley, S. Thirunavukkarasar, V.P. Goyal, Shatrughan Sinha, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati were all involved in one way or the other in approving this project during the NDA regime. We have not gone beyond what was decided during the six years of the NDA regime†Baalu said.
If this is true, the RSS-VHP should first publicly condemn these BJP leaders – and strictly prohibit
the sheer politicking of this emotive issue by the BJP on this issue.
The following links are useful to judge the Ram Setu issue.
http://www.vnn.org/world/WD0210/WD07-7592.html
http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2002/11/03-83975630.html
Question: Has UPA govt. followed all the policies and decisions of NDA govt.? The answer is plain no. If this issue has cropped up now with controversies and contradictions, with UPA govt. fooling itself with lies on oath in SC and withdrawing those lies regarding Ram and Ramayana within 48 hours, surely something is wrong with UPA and its band of politicians. Now they have demanded 3 months time to prepare who knows another set of lies to put before the SC. Such is the UPA governance of the country.
RoW – many cooks to this broth
Jyotindra – the facts here are too muddy hard to tell if NDA knew what it was getting into or if Congress willingly took this line, all in all its a mess and this is not how consensus ought to be built for projects of this nature the BJP and the Congress share good amount of blame with the DMK here.
Yossarin,
Please allow me to address your readers directly.
Dear Readers,
This post is Yossarin at his worst! Propagating his Hindtuva ideals by either being economical with the truth or spreading white lies.
Please read the book “Ceylon: An Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, and Topographical …” by James Emerson Tennent, which is available on google book search. Yossarin has reproduced verbatim, the page 553 in this book.
To understand the spin (or rather lies) concocted by yossarin, you should understand the geography of Ramar Sethu. I suggest you use Google Maps and have a look at the place.
Anyway, here’s a description.
1. Pamban Island which includes the Rameswaram town is between the Indian mainland and Srilanka.
2. The waters between Pamban Island and Tamilnadu is called the Pamban passage. i.e the waters to the west of the Island. The famous Pamban Bridge (train) and the Indira Gandhi Bridge (road) are over this passage. They link Rameswaram to the rest of Tamilnadu.
3. Adam’s Bridge or Ramar Sethu is a formation to the east of the Pamban Island. This natural formation made of standstone shoals links the “5th Island” near Pamban Island to the Mannar peninsula in Srilanka. It is this natural formation that stretches 30 KMs which is being dredged a mere 300 Metres in the center for the Sethu Canal Project.
Now let us read Yossarin’s post again and find out what J.E.Tennett actually says. Contents inside square brackets have been added by me.
“On leaving the [Rameswarm] temple, we rounded the western point of the [Pamban] island, and entered the gulf of Manaar, by the Paumbam Passage, which here intersects Adam’s Bridge. [He uses this 'Adam's Bridge' here for the rock formation which pervades the whole Gulf of Mannar and not the Ramar Setu at the point where it is being dredged"
[You can read the next two paragraphs as given by Yossarin.]
“The barrier that here obstructs the communication between Palk’s Bay and the Gulf, — appropriately called the †dam,†— is about a mile and quarter in length” [this clearly means Tennett is talking about the formation to the west of the Pamban Island. (1 and 1/4 miles) Not the 30 KM Ramar Sethu to the east of the Pamban Island]
“The rocks, which are flat upon the upper surface, have been so curiously broken up and intersected by the action of the waves, that they present the closest possible resemblance to deliberate arrangement, and †bear every appearance of having been placed there by art.” [This paragraph underlined by Yossarin is again about the rock structure on top of which Pamban Rail Bridge and the Indira Gandhi Road Bridge have already been built!!]
“Formerly, the fissure, through which small craft aloue could pass, was but thirty-five yards wide, with a maximum depth of little more than six feet of water [First foot note is about this]. Lately, this passage has been so enlarged and improved, that vessels drawing ten feet may venture through it in safety.”
[You can again read the next paragraph as given by Yossarin. But the last 3 paragraphs are given as footnotes by J.E.Tennet.]
“BALD.HUS relates the improbable story, that in 1057 fifteen Portuguese frigates, chased by the Dutch cruisers, escaped through the passage of Paumbam ; a circumstance which he accounts for by the still more unlikely conjecture, that the natives in charge of the channel had the power of adjusting the depth of the water by †either laying in or removing certain stones from the entrance.”
[This first foot note appears close to the "six feet of water" above]
Until now I have only explained Yossarin’s post. I would call this type of posts where the author quotes from a book without explaining the contest as unfortunate. If you had thought that paragraph underlined by Yossarin refers to the Ram Setu, then you have already fallen into his trap.
But the next page of this book where James Emerson Tennett gives his opinion about the real Ram Setu (the formation to the east of the Pamban Island which is being dredged for Setu Canal) has been conveniently left out by Yossarin!! By doing this Yossarin is quoting J.E.Tennett to mean something exactly opposite to what James wanted to say.
Here’s that paragraph on page 554 of the book.
“From frequent disruption by the sea, and the deposit of sand-drift on its surface, the formation to the east, between Ramiseram and Manaar, presents less of the artificial appearance which is exhibited in the vicinity of Paumbam, and which no doubt sufficed in ancient times to establish the belief that it was in reality a causeway constructed by superhuman power. The Hindus ascribed its origin to Rama, and amongst the Mahometans, the belief that Adam had found a retreat in Ceylon on his expulsion from Paradise, led to the conjectures that he must either have alighted from the sky, or passed by this singular causeway”.
There guys, J.E.Tennett DID NOT think that this natural formation was artificial. He perhaps even adds insult to the Hindutva injury by even mentioning the Muslim version of the beliefs on this structure.
Conclusion: I did not bring J.E.Tennett to the discussion. What he felt about the structure need not shape our views on the subject. But I just wanted to let you know the levels to which Aryan mythology fed Hindu Fundamentalists like Yossarin can go simply to support the VHP.
Let me add one more point. This is my guess. I’m not quoting any known scholar.
Pamban Passsage (not Ramar Setu) called the Dam by J.E.Tennett may have indeed been controlled by Tamil Kings for enhancing the defenses, fishing etc in the Palk Straits/Gulf of Mannar.
The Kings who have ruled the Ramanathapuram district which is the coastal district on the Tamilnadu mainland linked by Pamban Bridge to Rameswarm are called the ‘Setupathi’ Dynasty. Please allow me to explain some Tamil words here.
1. Thalapathi – Thalam (field) Pathi (commander) – Commander of the forces on land.
2. Kalapathi – Kalam (vessel) Pathi – Commander of the forces on the ship.
3. Sethupathi – Sethu (bridge) Pathi.
Now will this be the commander of the forces guarding the bridge or the ocean? My guess is Sethupathi dynasty got its name because they were the guards of the Bridge.
Yes, Hindus would like to think that this bridge is the Ramar Setu which links Pamban Island with Srilanka. But what difference would that make?
Even this bridge to Srilanka would have made economic sense to Tamils because they have always been active there either to wage wars or just for trade. But the point is Tamils have used these formations (either artificial or natural, either built by Rama or the later Tamil kings) for economic development.
If road and rail bridges have already been built on such formations, why not some dredging (of a mere 300 metres width) to increase trading activities at the ports of southern Tamilnadu.
Please guys, do not rob the people of Tamilnadu of much needed economic development by spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) like this.
One more addition to my comments #4 and #5.
To understand this point, please have a look at the Google Satellite image of the Gulf of Mannar. The Ramar sethu is roughly 3 to 30 metres below the sea level. Some small islands are even above the sea level. While few places have that 30 metres depth.
Now have you heard of Sea Level Rise? Its been suggested that sea level has risen roughly 1 to 2mm per year since 1900. Now let us assume this part of the world has seen local rise of 1mm per year for thousands of years.
My assumption is valid because local level activity can even be significantly more than 1mm per year but I have assumed it to be 1mm. To understand why local activity can be high in the Gulf of Mannaar, just think of Maldives (not far from here) which is one of the first places threatened by sea level rise.
Now my contention is this.
If sea level rose 1mm per year, then it means 1 metre rise in 1000 years. Assuming Lord Rama lived in 1000 BC, in those 3000 years the sea level would have risen 3 metres in the Gulf of Mannaar.
So if Rama had come there in 1000 BC, he could have as well walked over this natural formation, without having to build any bridge at all!! If you think Rama lived much before 1000 BC you are given more time for the sea level to rise.
Now I’m not discounting the theory that Rama or his forces may have utilized this shallow waters to add their own boulders and firm up the ‘bridge’. I’m only trying to impress upon you that Ramar setu is not over deep waters. A bridge may not have been needed there at all!
Balaji – glad my post was useful to you, great elucidation but completely misfired. You need to train your energies on Dr. Kalyanaraman and others, dont waste them on Offstumped
>> dont waste them on Offstumped
b’cos Offstumped is this moronic place where Hindu Fundamentalists celebrate their own stupidity?
and btw you haven’t explained your attempt at yellow journalism by misquoting James Emerson Tennett. I wonder how many facts you have quoted in this blog before were ‘doctored’.
balaji – dude get a life. if i had to doctor or misquote why bother with the author’s name or the book, why copy paste it verbatim. why even chose this extract when tenett makes arguments against the myth
think…. you feel strongly on this issue, I respect that but you have got your fundamentals badly wrong and you are so prejudiced that you are not making much sense beyond the economic argument. Here is what I will urge you to reflect on – if the case for this channel was such a slam dunk why is the political consensus so tentative, the BJP or VHP are no force to reckon with in TN why be bothered about them afterall before the affidavit fiasco nobody was even paying attention to Kalynaraman and Co. So your challenge lies elsewhere not here if the Congress were to be firmly behind the DMK on this do you seriously think the project would be put on hold ?
>> why bother with the author’s name or the book
because your audience is primarily north-indian pro-BJP guys who will not bother to check facts and would be happy that you are giving some ‘intelligent’ support to them?
>> the BJP or VHP are no force to reckon with in TN
but they are facing an existential crisis elsewhere. BJP is trying to regain the north Indian Hindu votes by screwing development in Tamilnadu about which they don’t care anyway!
>> if the Congress were to be firmly behind the DMK on this
Congress cannot as long as people like you spread FUD and provoke Hindu sentiments for the benefit of the BJP.
ok. This was my last comment on this post. I’m myself a BJP supporter on many issues. But our political affiliations should not be so blind that we write something so detrimental to national interests.
You yourself know that I have commended you and taken sides with you in support of the BJP in many of your previous posts. But please understand that you have a responsibility while writing in a group post like INI which even encourages author’s anonymity.
Honestly, I’m disappointed that I have had to fight with fellow right-wingers on Ram Setu much to the glee to the BJP-haters. I urge you to take a step back and see whether you can be more balanced in your views on the Indian political scene.
A right-wing blog like yours (which apparently is even being plagiarized by the Daily Pioneer) can serve the national interest better by appropriately criticizing the BJP/Sangh whenever they go wrong or by atleast not supporting some of their anti-national agenda.
[...] they didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle yet. Offstumped has similarly dealt with the Ram Sethu case here and realitycheck has a few pointed questions addressed to the ASI on the same [...]
Even madras high court said it as man made… Let us wait….