Lord Rama's bridge from NASA pictures

Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam's Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long.

The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge�s age is also almost equivalent.

This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the Hindu legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in the age of treta yuga (0.869 to 2.165 million years back).

In this epic, it is stated in the Hindu scriptures that a bridge was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Lord Ram, who was the incarnation of the supreme. The bridge was built by Lord Ram with the help of his army of monkeys to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who was captured by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.

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Thank you for sharing this. I had never heard this legend before, or about the feature. The pictures are awesome.

great find, The Ramayan is my favorite Hindu epic and seeing something that could support the story is truly fascinating. Looking at those pictures and knowing the story of Hanuman and Ram, it gave me goosebumps to see those pics.

Yeah it's a very interesting formation. I posted this about 2 years ago and the general concensus was that it was just a natural formation.

Mad Scientist,

I agree with that consensus. It most definitely looks natural. This statement is actually contrary to the physical characteristics:

Originally posted by aryaputhra

The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made.

the curvature and deposition at certain points is evidence of deposition, not a man-made structure. If it were straight...then I'd be curious, but this was just created over eons.

The story is nice, though, and gives me something to new to learn.

I'm still picturing this...

army of monkeys

"Get them my pretties!!!" Hehe....

Originally posted by aryaputhra
The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam's Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long.

The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made.

What about the curvature suggests its man made? If anything it looks extremely natural. If its made up of shoals, then how does its composition help?

The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge�s age is also almost equivalent.

homo sapiens doesn't come into existence until 500,000 years ago. What archeological studies are you refering to?

Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in the age of treta yuga (0.869 to 2.165 million years back).

That would put it in the range of Australpithecus for the later limit and still out of the range of Homo sapiens. Are you contending that Rama was an apeman? Neanderthal or c.f. Homo erectus?

The bridge was built by Lord Ram with the help of his army of monkeys to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who was captured by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.

.... do monkeys build with shoals or did do wife snatching demons turn bridges into mud?

[edit on 8-10-2004 by Nygdan]

It is, indeed, natural. We happened to be discussing this one in both my archaeology and my anthropology class last week.

It's part of an underwater ridge, yes -- and during the ice ages (there were quite a few of them), enough water was tied up in ice that sea level dropped 200 feet or more. And yes, that WAS indeed a land bridge where people traveled from Asia southward to the islands and to Australia. The last time that this area was accessable by land was around 10,000 - 20,000 years ago (last ice age... and yes, it did last a very long time.) I'm not sure that it was accessable during the Younger Dryas.

We don't do much here in America with the anthropology and archaeology of that area of the world (a bit too US-centric for my tastes), but I'm sure there's data that several waves of migration passed along the bridge (just as here in the New World we have linguistic and cultural evidence of at least five waves of immigrants coming in from the Bering land bridge.

Originally posted by aryaputhraThe bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge�s age is also almost equivalent.

I don't think there's any archaeology on the "bridge" since it seems to be a natural formation. And now that I look at where Sri Lanka is in relation to India, I think that the bridge was probably accessible during the Lesser Dryas period.

(I know you can't get to this article without paying Lots of Money, but you can look at the abstract for free, and it basically says they have genetic evidence that humans crossed land bridges during ice ages: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... )

This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the Hindu legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in the age of treta yuga (0.869 to 2.165 million years back).

In this epic, it is stated in the Hindu scriptures that a bridge was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Lord Ram, who was the incarnation of the supreme. The bridge was built by Lord Ram with the help of his army of monkeys to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who was captured by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.

...and this is what's actually interesting from an anthropological standpoint: The time scale is off by a factor of 100, but 8,000 - 21,000 years ago there WAS a land bridge there and people were leading migrations across it. It *is* possible (certainly anything is) that this tale is built on a much older epic which was built (in turn) on a much older story where someone really DID run away with another man's wife, and the husband chased him south for several hundred miles before catching the culprit and making sure his wife-stealing days were over.

I'd have trouble believing that the original tale was two million years ago, but I can sure see a tale like that becoming an oral epic cycle, and getting enhanced and becoming a much larger tale... and eventually part of the religious literature of one of the oldest holy books in existance.

Here's another thread on the subject for anyone who's interested :
www.abovetopsecret.com...

no matter what it actually is the pictures are great and the myth is really interesting -- I learned something new today

thanks
jm

.... do monkeys build with shoals or did do wife snatching demons turn bridges into mud?

Correction: That character in Ramayana, is not a monkey. He is in between humans and monkeys. At least he looks like it.

Originally posted by justme1640
no matter what it actually is the pictures are great and the myth is really interesting -- I learned something new today

I am with you on that.

It is a myth for godsake, it is not something meant to be taken literally. The actions are off little importance, the symbolism and the moral are of more importance.

Ravanan, the bad guy, is supposed to have 12 heads in the story. How are you gonna explain that?

Originally posted by surfup

.... do monkeys build with shoals or did do wife snatching demons turn bridges into mud?

Correction: That character in Ramayana, is not a monkey. He is in between humans and monkeys. At least he looks like it.

Yes, but I was clearly thinking about the army of monkeys under his command. Whenever something is unclear, just assume that the person is talking about an army of monkeys.

Originally posted by Nygdan
Yes, but I was clearly thinking about the army of monkeys under his command. Whenever something is unclear, just assume that the person is talking about an army of monkeys.

That is wrong too. He wasn't helped by a commander of armies, but by creatures, somewhat of a cross between humans and armies. That must be a translation error.

www.askasia.org...

The teachings of the Vedanta's are not meant to be taken literaly, or so i was raised to believe, but represented the quarells in ones mind.

That character in Ramayana, is not a monkey. He is in between humans and monkeys. At least he looks like it.

Hanuman used to scare the crap out of me when i was a kid; we would go to Mundar somtimes.





Deep

Originally posted by ZeroDeep
Hanuman used to scare the crap out of me when i was a kid; we would go to Mundar somtimes.

There was a temple about him where I lived, so I kinda liked him. Can't believe he used to scare you.

I kinda liked him. Especially his tail, I thought that was cool.

The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge�s age is also almost equivalent.

According to the findings done by the CRS (Centre of Remote Sensing) in Tiruchi, the so called Rama's Bridge or the Adam's Bridge is only 3500 years old, and not 1.7 million years.
Link.

However, carbon dating of the beaches roughly matches the dates of Ramayana, which is believed to have taken place 1.7 millions years ago, as stated above.

[edit on 15-10-2004 by jp1111]

Originally posted by jp1111

However, carbon dating of the beaches roughly matches the dates of Ramayana, which is believed to have taken place 1.7 millions years ago, as stated above.

Um carbon dating isn't capable of dating anything beyond 40 000 years of age, after that uranium isotope dating is needed.

Thanks for the info, mad scientist. I just wrote what the article said. I'm really confused about the dates actually.

The article says, "Detection of bundles of ancient beaches � between Thiruthuraipoondi and Kodiyakarai-in satellite pictures and carbon dating of such beaches showed that Thiruthurajpoondi beach dates back to 6,000 years and Kodiyakarai to 1,100 years...Carbon dating of ancient beaches found west of Uchichipuli in Ramanath puram district put their age at 3,500 years...But, as the carbon dating of the beaches roughly matches with the dates of Ramayana, its linkage with Ramayana needs to the explored, Ramasamy said."

If they say that the carbon dating matches the dates of Ramayana, wouldn't that mean that Ramayana took place 6000 or 1100 or 3500 years ago. But they also say that it was around 1.7 million years, which leaves me confused.

I hope someone knowledgeable on this subject can clear up what the article is actually saying. Here is the link again. Thanks.

This is a good read, someone posted the link but here is the main page for the whole epic. If someone is interested in the background of hindu religion, then check it out.

www.askasia.org...