Adam’s Bridge – 1,750,000 Year Old Man-Made

Bridge between Sri Lanka and India

Ram crossed here to lanka / Photo from joshivatsal

sri Lanka may not be an Island nation after all – a chain

of limestone shoals called Ram Setu or Pamban
Bridge remains faint evidence to the former land
connection between the Mannar islands of northwestern
Sri Lanka and Rameswaram in the Indian southwestern
coast. The 3 ft to 30 ft depth of the sea surrounding this
30 miles (48 km) long bridge is not good enough to allow
proper navigation. Earlier there used to be a regular ferry
service between Talaimannar of Sri Lanka and
Rameswaram of India, which is currently withheld due to
the continuing civil disorder within Lanka.
 Adams Bridge Map

The first mention of this reportedly man-made bridge was

found in the accounts of Ibn Khordadbeh in his Book of
Roads and Kingdoms. Since then, it has been attributed
with several names like Set Bandhai, meaning ‘Bridge of
the Sea‘,Rama’s Bridge and Adam’s Bridge. The
Islamic legends state that it was used by Adam to
traverse the route to Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka to repent
for 1000 years, during which he kept standing on one
foot. This perhaps explains the large footprint hollow you
can find on the Peak.
On the other hand, the Indian or rather the Hindu legend
behind this superbly curved sandstone bridge relates it to
the epic Ramayana. Accordingly, it is deemed to be built
by the ‘vanara sena’ (monkey army) of the glorious
incarnation of Shri Rama, the hero of the epic, to rescue
his holy wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana, who ruled
over Lanka. The radiocarbon dating of the bridge verges
on around 1,750,000 years, which roughly coincides with
the Indian estimate of the mythical ‘Treta Yuga’.
Virgin Comics’ Ramayan reinvents the ancient
stories of the Ramayana in graphic-novel style.
Below, the Hindu goddess Devi, as reinterpreted by
filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and series artist Mukesh
Singh. / Photo from albill

The space footages of the Ram Setu provided by NASA

has neither confirmed nor rejected these controversial
claims. Contrary to the Vaishnava News Network’s
insistence on the Rama legend, after taking its 2002
remote sensing images, NASA simply stated that the
much-hyped bridge was only a naturally formed chain of
shoals and refused to comment on the possible human
involvement in its construction.

Landsat 5 image of Adam’s Bridge / Photo from

Global Land Cover Facility, www.landcover.org
Picture taken by NASA in the year 2005 of Shri Ram
Setu (Adma Bridge) / Photo from dheerajway

However, opposing ideas have continued to surface about

the origin of the bridge. S. Badrinarayanan, the director
of the Geological Survey of Indiaalong with the head
of Post-Graduate Department of Geology and Research
Centre, Prof. N. Ramanujam has given a scientifically
inclined explanation of the possible natural occurrence of
the sand banks with the corals on top. The Madras Court
has stuck to the man-made theory.
Rama, Laksman and their friends building a bridge
to Demon country Lanka where the abducted Sita-
devi is being held captive. On every stone the Name
of Rama is written. / Photo from Yadupati
In spite of such controversies, the Ram Setu has never
ceased to attract the attention of geological experts.
There are several theories to suggest the age and
formation of this mysterious bridge. One of these
theories attributes the formation of the bridge to random
sand deposition and sedimentation. Another suggests the
opposite movement of the long shore drifting currents
along the landmasses gave rise to the tombola. Still
another team of geologists proposes the atoll and coral
reef composition of the 103-patch ridge to be due to the
thinning out of the earth crust, barrier islands, a sand
spit or a local uplift.

Such varied explanations have not diminished the

religious value of the Ram Setu for Indians. The Indian
government had planned the prestigious and expensive
Sethu samudram Shipping Canal Project in 2001 to
improve the navigation across the Palk Strait. It was
shelved primarily because of the sacred associations of
the divine figure of Shri Ram, though environmental and
economic reasons were the other grounds as well. To
push its plan to success, an affidavit was lodged by the
Indian Government in the Supreme Court of India
rubbishing the epical notion of the bridge’s formation.
“Adam’s Bridge”, the narrow ribbon of land joining
India to Sri Lanka, viewed from space / Photo
from tmosprmo

Yet the near-destructed Ram Setu stands with all its

glory, drawing thousands of pilgrims every year and
continues to baffle the scientists and theorists world
over. Some say that this much-studied bridge was
perhaps what protected the Kerala coastline from the
fury of the 2004 Tsunami.
Pamban Railway Bridge at sunset.
Pamban Rail Bridge was opened at 1914. It is
2.3Km length – longest sea bridge in India. / Photo
from tamilian / photo-capture.co.uk