1. The Temple of Lord Shiva
‘Ramanathaswamy’ means literally ‘Rama’s God’ referring to Lord Shiva. To absolve the sins produced in Sri Lanka, the temple is believed to have been founded and worshiped by Lord Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
2. Jyotirlinga
According to Hindu texts, the continent has only 12 Jyotirlinga, which has arisen on its own. One of the 12 Jyotirlingas is housed on the temple. It is widely accepted that those who visit any of these 12 Jyotirlingas will achieve moksha and be released from the life and death cycles. Together with this, they get Lord Shiva ‘s blessing.
3. Char Dham
The Pandavas in the Mahabharata define the Char Dham (4 abodes) as “Badrinath,” “Kedarnath,” “Gangotri,” and “Yamunotri” They were four places which the Pandavas believed were able to cleanse people from their sins.
In present-day times, Char Dham is the name of four Indian pilgrimage sites commonly worshipped by Hindus. This contains Rameswaram, Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri, and. Visiting Char Dham during one’s lifetime is considered highly sacred by Hindus. The Char Dham defined by Adi Shankaracharya is composed of four pilgrimages of Vaishnavites.
4. Temple with 2 Lingams
The temple has two presiding ‘Lingam-s’ namely ‘Ramalingam’ and ‘Viswalingam.’ It is assumed that the presiding deity, the Ramanathaswamy Lingam (Shiva), was created and worshiped by Rama, who was aided by Devi Sita and Lord Hanuman. As Ravana was both a Brahmin and a Shiva devotee. The one built with sand by Devi Sita herself was ‘Ramalingam’ and the one bro was ‘Viswalingam’.
5. A Temple built by Lord Rama
The story goes that Rama needed a major Lingam to worship Shiva in order to absolve him of the guilt of murdering a Brahmin. So he ordered Hanuman, (the lieutenant monkey in his army) to carry a Himalayan Lingam. Once Hanuman was slow in getting in the Lingam, however. Ensured by the incident, Rama ‘s wife Devi Sita constructed a small Lingam out of the sand at the seashore.
6. Hall of 1000 Pillars
In the outer corridor the temple tanks hall of 1212 pillars whose height is about 30 feet from the floor to the middle of the building. The central tower is 53 m tall, or Rajagopuram. The bulk of pillars are sculpted with different compositions.
7. House of many Shrines
Inside this shrine is holding the temple ‘s main deity (moolavar), the Shiva linga built by Lord Rama. Ramanathaswamy shrine is constructed using dark black granite blocks, and the gold-coated Vimana (rooftop tower). There are various sanctuaries within the temple for Ramanathswamy, Visalakshi, Parvathavardhini, Santanaganpathi, Mahaganapathi, Subrahmanya, Sethumadhava, Mahalaxmi, Nataraja, and Anjaneya.
8. Teerthams
The temple complex also houses 22 teerthams, or bodies of holy water in the form of tanks and wells. Some teerthams represent the 22 arrows in the quiver of Rama. Before joining the sanctum sanctorum, bathing is considered necessary for every devotee.
9. A Paadal Petra Sthalam
It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, wherewith their songs the three most revered Nayanars (Saivite saints), Appar, Sundarar, and Tirugnana Sambandar, glorified the temple.
10. World’s Longest Corridor
The outer set of Ramanathaswamy temple corridors is reputed to be the world’s longest hallway, reaching approximately 6.9 m in height, 400 feet each in east and west, and approximately 640 feet in north and south. The central passages in the east and west are approximately 224 feet long, and in the north and the south is about 352 feet wide. Its width in the east varies from 15.5 feet to 17 feet, and about 172 feet west to the north and south with width ranging from 14.5 feet to 17 feet. And the total length of those corridors is 3850 ft.
