In India, a ghost town and a mythological bridge

It is here that the Ramayana, a central epic for Hindus, says Lord Rama crossed a bridge called Rama Setu to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana

At dawn, a procession of buses sped past coconut huts, past fishermen unfurling nets and through the ghost town of Dhanushkodi — leveled in a powerful hurricane in 1964 — before stopping at a stretch of beach where, according to Hindu mythology, an ancient bridge once stood.

As day broke, barrel-chested businessmen filed into the ocean, reciting mantras. Hindu priests, clad in white, dropped to their knees to lead funereal ceremonies for families who had lost an uncle, a father. A cluster of teenagers wandered over the dunes.

For centuries, pilgrims from the Indian cities of Chennai, Mumbai and Patna,