The Siva temple where Rama worshipped on his way to Lanka, on Pamban island at the head of Adam's Bridge.
The English Wikipedia says the Pandya built the present structure in the twelfth century and that Parakramabahu I of Lanka helped build the sanctum; the page on Nissanka Malla says he restored a temple here and called it Nissankesvara. The two Sinhalese accounts are not reconciled. The temple holds a pilgrim traffic from all of India and the ferry to Lanka is the road a claimant or a mercenary takes.
Who holds it
- Name
- not named in any source we reached
- Title
- Managers of the Ramanathaswamy temple
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
The Pandya king
What it holds
- Temple lands on the island and mainland
- The pilgrim fees and the ferry
Allies and rivals
The Pandya king
How things stand that morning
A pilgrim shrine that both the Pandya and the Sinhalese kings favour.
Wealth
Pilgrim offerings and temple lands.
Military
No armed force is recorded for the house.
Where the sources disagree
- Wikipedia (Rameswaram) credits Parakramabahu I and the Pandya; Wikipedia (Nissanka Malla) credits Nissanka Malla with renovating and renaming. The Jaffna kings' title Setukavalan is of the thirteenth century and later.
Evidence: The house is well known and its patrons and fabric are described in the pages we read; no page we read names its managers or any act of it in 1200, so the 1200 position is inferred.
On the map: Drawn as a small disc round the shrine; the real estates were scattered villages.
Primary sources for Pandya kingdom
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
- Epigraphia Carnatica: inscriptions of the Mysore country, Various (Hoysala chancery and temple scribes), edited by B. Lewis Rice and R. Narasimhachar (inscriptions of the 4th to 19th centuries; the series ran from 1886 to 1905, revised from 1972). The Hoysala kingdom of Veera Ballala II (reigning 1173 to 1220) is documented almost wholly by the inscriptions in this series, arranged by district and taluk with full English translations. Read online
- Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
- Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.