Dhanushkodi-my friend mr. sreeraj

Dhanushkodi-akkuvava in sand dunes

Dhanushkodi-fisherman hutts.

Dhanushkodi-village people collecting the drinking water

Dhanushkodi-Ruined Church

Dhanushkodi-part of ruined railway station

Dhanushkodi-seashore

Dhanushkodi-jeeps on sand dunes

Dhanushkodi

Dhanushkodi is a city at the southern tip of the Rameswaram island, at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India.

Dhanushkodi is situated in the South-East of Pamban. The Dhanushkodi railway line was destroyed in the 1964 cyclone from Pamban Station and a trainload of passengers was washed into the sea. Even though the railway line was laid between Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi, it was in course of time covered by six sand dunes and it was abandoned. One has to reach Dhanushkodi on foot along sea shore or in jeeps on sand dunes.

It is said that Pilgrimage to Kashi will be completed only after the worship at Rameswaram besides a holy bath in Dhanushkodi at the Confluence of Mahodadhi (Bay of Bengal) and Ratnakara (Indian Ocean). Setu is Sanskrit word to denote bridge or causeway. It has now acquired a special significance to mean the bridge across the ocean constructed by Rama to reach Lanka.

Danushkodi is about 18 miles West of Talaimannar in Jaffna, Ceylon. Before 1964 storm there was a train service up to Danushkodi called Boat Mail from Chennai Egmore, the train linked a steamer to Ceylon. During the 1964 storm a huge wave of about 20 ft came crashing on the town from Palk Bay/Strait east of the town and destroyed the whole town, a train, the Pamban Rail Bridge etc all happened at the dead of the night. Danushkodi has the only land border between India and Ceylon which is one of the smallest in the world just 50 yards in length on a sand dune in Palk Strait.

The Government of Madras declared the town as Ghost town and unfit for living after the storm, now a small group of fisher folk resides there. For reaching the village one has to go in a four wheel drive or in a fish cart.