Jatayu, the mythical bird of Ramayana, to woo tourists to Kerala

Kerala is already branded as 'God's own country' and offers medical tourism to tourists who visit it. The state is now getting an additional attraction in the form of Jatayu, the mythical bird mentioned in the Ramayana, that fight with Ravana as he was kidnapping Sita. The bird is set to come alive next year through the Jatayu Nature Park in Thiruvananthapuram.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 17 December 2015.

Kerala will throw open the first phase of the Jatayu Nature Park in January 2016 - it has been listed as one of its ambitious tourism projects and will be coming up in Kollam district. It has been allocated Rs 100 crore.
The Jatayu Nature Park is spread over 65 acres in Chadayamangalam and has natural features like small mountains, valleys, cliffs and rock-formations. It is aimed to attract tourists who have interests in mythological, adventure and wellness tourism.
The main attraction, however, is a giant sculpture of the mythical bird Jatayu from which the park gets its name - as per the Hindu epic Ramayana, Jatayu had tried to rescue Sita after she was abducted by Raavan and, in the opinion of locals, the bird fell here after it was struck down by Raavan.
The bird sculpture measures 200 ft x 150 ft x 70 ft and sits on top of a hill it is believed to be the biggest sculpture of a bird in the world. Inside it, it will house a 6D theatre and an audio-visual-based digital museum that will take visitors on a journey of Ramayana.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

#muktidham #infantjesus #trimbakeshwar #ramkund #ramayana If you arrive in Nashik by train, you would have to get down at the Nashik Road railway station and the first important tourist attraction of Nashik is the Mukti Dham. This is a huge temple made of pure marble and located hardly one kilometer from the station. It was built in late 1960s and houses statues of a whole lot of Gods and Goddesses. Paragraphs from the Holy Scripture Gita are inscribed on the walls.
As you travel towards the city, you cannot miss the Shrine of Infant Jesus adjacent to the St Xavier’s School. The Christian community gathers in the shrine in the month of February. They come from Mumbai, Goa and other far off places to offer their prayers to Lord Jesus.
Once inside the city proper, you will like to make a beeline for the Ram Kund where Lord Rama is believed to have had his bath. It is on the banks of the River Godavari that has its source in the mountains of Trimbakeshwar. The river begins as a trickle and winds its way through the country to terminate in the Bay of Bengal near the city of Rajamundry in Hyderabad.
Anyway, one can spend some time on the banks of the river tasting the chats or the local fast foods including the bhel puri or go for boating or take a trip to the Kalaram Mandir or the Sita gufa – this is believed to be an underground cave where Sita mata used to stay. One has to crawl into the cave. There is also the Lakshman Rekha – this is associated with the epic Ramayana.
As per mythology, Lord Rama had left the hut to chase a golden deer that Sita mata had seen and wanted. Since he was getting delayed, she began to worry and asked her brother-in-law Lakshman to seek out Lord Rama. Therefore Lakshman, after some hesitation, used the tip of an arrow to draw a line around the hut and cautioned Sita mata not to go beyond the line.
Unfortunately, Ravana, the Demon King came dressed as a hermit with a begging bowl and lured her out of the protected area, kidnapped her and whisked her away to his palace in Lanka and the rest is history.

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