Habil & Qabil Dargah
During my visit to India in October 2019, I had a chance to visit Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu state and came across a very interesting place. The site is called “Habil and Qabil Dargah”. Or Tomb of Abel and Cain. The twin graves of biblical characters- Abel and his brother Cain are about 60 feet long. The site is maintained by the family of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007, who was born and brought up in Rameswaram.
According to the myth surrounding the graves, Adam and Eve after they were cast out of Eden, travelled east and came to southern India. They crossed over to Sri Lanka by Adam’s bridge to reach Adam’s Peak. Adam’s bridge is a bridge like land formation submerged about 15 feet of sea water connecting Dhanushkodi, of Pamban island, India to Mannar island, Sri Lanka. This long stretch of sand bank was above sea level until 14th century and was destroyed by cyclones. A big foot print like rock formation, measuring five feet by two feet, is still visible on the 7359 feet mountain, Adam’s peak. Christians and Muslims say that is Adam’s foot prints. But Hindus claim it as foot prints (sri pada) of Lord Shiva or Hanuman and the Buddhists consider it as that of Buddha’s. According to legend, Adam was about 90 feet tall, thus the big size foot. And Cain & Abel were 60 ft. high. That explains the 60 foot graves of those bothers. Now humans live up to 80 or 90 years old, have a height of 6ft. In Adam’s times their age was about 900 years. So they were 10 times bigger. And when a 90ft. man walks he can cover long distances in short time at a speed of around 50 miles per hour. That is how they reached south India by foot from garden of Eden.
This may sound fictional, but there is an actual place in India, where two long graves are still maintained inside the dargah. Visitors can go and see them free of charge. It is situated in the city. There is also a well in the property, called Adam’s well.
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