On the sea-girt island of Rameswaram, at the tip of the peninsula facing Lanka, Ramanathaswamy is sacred as both a Jyotirlinga of Shiva and one of the four Char Dham — the only shrine to hold both honours. Its legend is drawn from the Ramayana: returning victorious from Lanka, Sri Rama wished to worship Shiva to absolve the sin of having slain Ravana, a brahmin. He sent Hanuman to bring a linga from Kailasa, and when it was delayed, Sita fashioned a linga from the sea-sand, which Rama consecrated and worshipped first — the Ramalinga honoured in the sanctum to this day.
The temple is renowned for its majestic pillared corridors, among the longest of any temple in India, and for its twenty-two sacred theerthams, or water tanks, in which pilgrims bathe in sequence before darshan to cleanse themselves of sin.
Uniting the paths of Shiva and Vishnu — for here Rama himself worshipped the Lord — Rameswaram is a cornerstone of pilgrimage, often undertaken together with Kashi in the north to complete one of Hinduism's greatest sacred journeys.
Rameswaram has twenty-two wells inside the temple, each with its own name. Pilgrims are bathed at every one of them in turn before darshan.
Source: Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple, HR&CE Tamil Nadu; 22 theerthams
