Ramanathaswamy Temple
— — the corridor the morning light walks down.
Not only on a wall.
“A temple on an island reached by a long bridge over a shallow turquoise strait. Pilgrims arrive before dawn, walk the twenty-two sacred wells in order, and emerge wet-haired into the corridor of pillars that stretches almost the length of two football fields. The granite holds the cool of the night well past sunrise. People speak in low voices, even the children. Outside, the Bay of Bengal does what it has always done, and the fishermen of Rameswaram go on with their morning. — from the studio
Ramanathaswamy Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Ramanathaswamy Temple sits on Pamban Island in the Gulf of Mannar, in the town of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. It is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva and one of the four Char Dham sites that anchor the Hindu pilgrimage map of India. The current temple grew in stages between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries, with patronage from the Pandya, Setupati and Vijayanagara rulers. Pilgrims reach the island by the Pamban road bridge from Mandapam on the mainland. The temple complex is famous for the longest pillared corridor of any Hindu temple, and for its twenty-two sacred wells inside the outer enclosure.
The outer corridor measures roughly 197 metres on its longest side and is lined with about 1,212 carved granite pillars set on raised plinths. The shafts were quarried on the mainland and ferried across the strait before the Pamban bridge existed. Each pillar carries a different relief, and the long perspective lines created by their alignment are the image most often remembered. The sanctum itself enshrines two lingams associated with the Ramayana account of Rama's worship of Shiva at Rameswaram before crossing to Lanka.
The temple opens before sunrise and closes in the early evening, with a midday interval. Devotees traditionally bathe in the sea at Agni Theertham, a short walk east of the eastern gopuram, then complete the twenty-two-well bath inside the enclosure with the help of temple staff who draw water from each well. Non-Hindu visitors are welcome in the outer corridors but not the inner sanctum. Cameras are restricted inside. Dress is modest; many men wear a dhoti. Footwear is left at stalls outside the gates.