Mt. Gandhamadana is the tallest peak on Pamban Island which lies in the

Palk Strait The Palk Strait ( ta, பாக்கு நீரிணை ''Pākku Nīriṇai'', si, පෝක් සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය ''Pok Samudra Sandhiya'') is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna Distric ...

between mainland India and Sri Lanka. It is believed by many people that

Lord Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine ''vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and one ...

resides there.

Location

Gandhamadana is located 3 kilometres from

Rameswaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 kilo ...

, almost midway between the western edge of the island and the ghost-town of

Dhanushkodi Dhanushkodi is an abandoned town at the south-eastern tip of Pamban Island of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is south-east of Pamban and is about west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The town was destroyed during the 1964 Rameswaram cyclo ...

at the corner of the eastern promontory.

History

Mt. Gandhamadana is believed to be the hillock from whose summit, the

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

-devotee

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

, commenced his flight to

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. He a ...

Lanka Lanka (, ) is the name given in Hindu epics to the island fortress capital of the legendary asura king Ravana in the epics of the ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata''. The fortress was situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks known ...

. Kalidasa umarasambhava, VIrefers to Gandhamadana, in the vicinity of the mythical city of Osadhiprastha in Himalaya Mountain, having Santanaka trees.

Nath Nath, also called Natha, are a Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism and Yoga traditions in India.Dattatreya Dattatreya ( sa, दत्तात्रेय, ), Dattā or Dattaguru, is a paradigmatic Sannyasi (monk) and one of the lords of yoga, venerated as a Hindu god. In Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya ...

atop Mount Gandhamadana for spiritual guidance. Their

conversations Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...

gave rise to

Tripura Rahasya The Tripura Rahasya (Devanagari: त्रिपुरा रहस्य, ) meaning ''The Mystery beyond the Three cities'', is an ancient literary work in Sanskrit believed to have been narrated by Dattatreya to Parashurama. It is an ancient prime ...

, a treatise on

Advaita Vedanta ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hinduism, Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the Āstika and nāstika, orthodox Hindu school Ved ...

. It was here the

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

instructed the warrior-sage on knowledge of scripture, renunciation of worldly activities, and non-duality, thus freeing Parashurama from the cycle of death and rebirth. Gandhamadan Parvat is also known as Rama Feet.

References

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External links

Maps of India
{{coord missing, Tamil Nadu Mountains of Tamil Nadu Places in the Ramayana Mountains in Buddhism