Lord Rama’s bridge or Adam’s bridge-NASA’s Vision

These are Two big Ethics in Hinduism.Ramayana and Mahabaratha,they are the hindu’s greatest and greatest wealths.There are so few informations are available at present time about these great ethics.This Article is an another example that these epics were true and not imaginary.I think you will love it.I got this Article from Wikipedia.Read till last.

Adam’s Bridge (Tamil-One of the worlds oldest language: ஆதாம் பாலம் āthām pālam), also known as Rama’s Bridge or Ram Setu (Tamil: இராமர் பாலம் irāmar pālam) is a chain of limestone shoals, between the islands of Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka. Geological evidence indicates that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka.

The bridge is 30 miles (48 km)(WOW!) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast). 

 Name

The 13th century Venetian traveller Marco Polo’s travel map shows that he travelled around the Adam’s bridge area. His travel book calls this area Setabund-Rameswara[1] which means bridge constructed at Rameswaram.

The bridge was first mentioned in Valmiki’s ancient Sanskrit epic, Ramayana.

The name Rama’s Bridge or Rama Setu (Sanskrit; setu: bridge) was given to this bridge of shoals in Rameshwaram, as Hindu legend identifies it with the bridge built by the army of Rama , which he used to reach Sri Lanka and rescue his wife Sita from the Rakshasa king, Ravana, as stated in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.^[6]. It is called as Adam’s Bridge in the west and the name probably comes from an Islamic legend.

The sea separating India and Sri Lanka is called Sethusamudram “Sea of the Bridge”. Maps prepared by a Dutch cartographer in 1747, available at the Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal Library shows this area as Ramancoil, a colloquial form of the Tamil Raman Kovil (Rama’s Temple) Another map of Mogul India prepared by J. Rennel in 1788 retrieved from the same library called this area the area of the Rama Temple  Many other maps in Schwartzberg’s historical atlas and other sources call this area with various names like Koti, Sethubandha and Sethubandha Rameswaram along with others. Valmiki Ramayan called the bridge built by Lord Rama Setu Bandhanam in verse 2-22-76.

The earliest map that calls this area Adam’s bridge was prepared by a British cartographer in 1804.

LOCATION:

Adam’s Bridge starts as chain of shoals from the Dhanuskodi tip of India’s Rameswaram Island and ends at Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island. 

Geological evolution and age

Landsat 5 image of Adam’s Bridge

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. 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.^[ Yet 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. Marine and Water Resources Group of Space Application Centre, ISRO based on satellite remote sensing data, without actual field verification concluded 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 origin of the structure has been explained as being 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’. The tombolo model on the other hand affirms a constant sediment source and a strong unidirectional or bi-directional (monsoonal) longshore current. 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.

Some geologists have stated that this structure is a natural one whereas others believe that this structure is man-made. The Madras High Court has said that this bridge is man-made.

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 original evidence explains many of the uncertainties regarding the nature and of Adam’s Bridge, which consists of a series of parallel ledges of sandstone and conglomeration that is hard at the surface and grows coarse and soft as it descends to sandy banks. 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.

The GSI carried out a special programme called “Project Rameswaram” that concluded that age data of corals indicate that the Rameswaram island has evolved since 125,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the domain between Rameswaram and Talaimannar may have thus been exposed sometime between 18,000 and 7,000 years ago. 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.

Some more information

NASA satellite photo of Rama’s Bridge—oblique, Sri Lanka to the left

Certain historical inscriptions, old travel guides, old dictionary references and some old maps have reinforced the religious and geographical belief of this structure being the ancient bridge that is considered with great regard by the Hindus in the Indian Subcontinent.This conjecture must be tempered with the fact that there are no geographical pointers to the structure being Rama’s Bridge in any of the ancient texts or Puranas. Vaishnava News Network and some other U.S.-based news services suggested that they had discovered the remains of the bridge built by Rama and his Vanara army that is referred to in the Ramayana, and that it was not a natural formation, basing their claim on 2002 NASA satellite footage.

Well,Hope you like the Article.In ramayana(Written before some thousands of years) it mentioned that Ramayana was Happened 17 lakh years before.In ramayana it was written’After Rama touches the stones which are sinks before are floats,they built a floating bridge’.NASA mentioned in its report that this Bridge was not natural and its age may be 17 lakhs and the bridge is floating.What an coincidence?There are lots of messages we have to know.There are billions of  Hidden Wonders.I will continuosly post Wonderful messages.Don’t be late to read :)

Reference: www.wikipedia.org, vaishnava reports,NASA.org,Google images.