Adam's Bridge & Adam's Peak

I used to think that Adam’s Bridge in South India and Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka were named after some Englishman, from the Raj days. But while researching for Ram Sethu controversy, yesterday’s post on my blog, I came to understand that the name is from the original Adam of Eden.

According to some Islamic texts, Adam, after being banished from Eden, walked down to South India, crossed over to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) by the causeway between Palk Straits and Gulf of Mannar and climbed the 2,243 meters mountain in the south of that country. It is claimed that the 'first man' stood atop the peak on one leg, a penance that lasted for 1000 years. As a result, his foot mark became imprinted on the rock on which he stood. Adam would have been a giant of a man because the footprint measures 5 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 6 inches! The legend also indicates that Sri Lanka was the nearest thing to Paradise on earth.

The mountain, Adam’s Peak, is popularly known as ‘Sri Pada’ (sacred footprint). It is a holy place to Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and to lesser extent, to the Jews. That is something unique. The Buddhists believe that the footprint is that of Buddha, made during his final visit to Lanka. The Hindus consider it as Shivan’s Adi Padam, caused by his thandavam (dance) atop the peak.

When the Portuguese reached the island in the 16c, they didn’t want to be left out of the script and claimed that the sacred footprint was that of St. Thomas who brought Christianity to Lanka. There is a similar assertion about the impression on a rock at the famous St. Thomas pilgrimage centre at Malayattoor in Kerala. But that I believe is more man-sized. I don’t think that any mention of St. Thomas having had feet of giant proportions exists in any text. Whatever the claims may be, the Adam’s Peak is beautiful as you can see in the picture below:

Photo from Wikimedia Commons under GNUFDL.

Ends.

Ram Sethu controversy

The controversy about the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) is most unfortunate. The scheme is to create a shipping channel to connect Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar. Once this is done, the ships going to the Arabian Sea from India’s east coast ports can save about 400kms (say, about 30 hours of sailing) by avoiding the detour around Sri Lanka.

The protests against the project started when NASA released satellite photos showing the Adam’s Bridge which many millions believe was built by Lord Rama’s forces to cross over to Sri Lanka and rescue Sita from Ravana. The fuse was lit when the Archeological Survey of India submitted an affidavit in the Suprme Court claiming that there is no historic evidence to the events in Ramayana. The way it was worded apparently offended certain groups and the Government of India promptly withdrew the affidavit. But the damage was already done.

What I can’t understand is, if the BJP and their allies genuinely believed in the sanctity of the bridge, why didn’t they, when they were in power, declare the area as a heritage site and change the name Adam’s Bridge officially to ‘Ramaar Paalam’ or ‘Ram Sethu’? The obvious answer is that at that time they failed to see the color of votes, if at all it is there, in this far away (from Delhi) destination.

Now it would seem that BJP went trigger happy without referring to the back files. A Times of India report that I saw on the Internet yesterday says that the SSCP was revived (the idea had been mooted during British days) by the then BJP-led government. Different alignments were considered and the BJP government gave the in principle approval to the project in January 2003. Quoting sources the report says that the present alignment which cuts through the Ram Sethu was approved by the NDA government led by BJP. Therefore it would appear that the Manmohan Singh government is only carrying on with what the BJP had approved.

If this position is confirmed conclusively, the BJP would have difficulty in explaining the agitation against the project.

Two images of Adam’s Bridge from Wikipedia are reproduced below:

UN map, considered to be in public domain.

Released to public domain by the Federal Government of United States.

Ends.

Also see:

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview