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On Day 1 of the 18th BRICS Summit (12 September 2026) at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands before a projection of the pillared corridor of the Ramanathaswamy Temple.
The temple stands at Rameswaram on Pamban (Rameswaram) Island in Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram district and is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas.
Its outer corridor, with about 1,212 carved pillars, is reputed to be the longest temple corridor in the world; it was built under Muthuramalinga Sethupathi (r. 1763–1795).
It was Xi's first visit to India in seven years; the two leaders last met in India in Tamil Nadu in October 2019.
Pandya dynasty expands the temple into a stone structure
Jaffna king Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan renovates the sanctum using stone blocks shipped to the site
Temple rebuilt in largely its present form after earlier sackings (ASI superintendent Henry Hardy Cole's 1885 report)
Muthuramalinga Sethupathi builds the famous third corridor
Modi and Xi's previous meeting in India, in Tamil Nadu
Corridor projected as backdrop for the Modi-Xi handshake at the BRICS Summit
Rameswaram lies on Pamban Island in the Gulf of Mannar, off Tamil Nadu's south-east coast, linked to the mainland by the Pamban bridges and close to Dhanushkodi, the Indian end of the Ram Setu (Adam's Bridge) shoal chain towards Sri Lanka.
GS Paper I > Indian Culture > Temple Architecture
General Awareness > Art and Culture
One of 12 shrines where Shiva is worshipped as a column of light; Rameswaram is the southernmost
The 276 Shiva temples praised in the Tevaram hymns of the Nayanar saints
Monumental gateway tower typical of Dravidian temples