Vivekananda Rock Memorial

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Context

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, to meditate between May 30 to June 1, to mark the culmination of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Details

• The Vivekananda Rock Memorial is a monument located on one of two rocks off the coast of Vavathurai in Kanyakumari, India’s southernmost tip.
• The memorial stands on one of the two rocks located about 500 meters off mainland of Vavathurai.
• It was built in 1970 in honour of Swami Vivekananda, who is said to have attained enlightenment on the rock.
• Built in 1970 to honor Swami Vivekananda, who is believed to have attained enlightenment there, the memorial includes a meditation hall called Dhyana Mandapam, designed with architectural styles from across India.
• At the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet lies the Vivekananda Memorial.
• The Vivekananda Memorial was inaugurated on 2 September 1970, by the then President VV Giri.
• Geologists call the Vivekananda Memorial ‘the Gondwana Junction’ because it marks a place where India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, East Antarctica and Australia were once joined together
• Slowly over the years, India’s landmass started moving north towards Eurasia at the speed of 18 to 20 cm in a year, much faster in contrast to Australia or Africa. When India collided with Eurasia about 50 million years ago, it led to the birth of the mighty Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.

Note: The island on which the Memorial lies is Charnockite rock island. Charnockite rocks are a group of metamorphic rocks and in 1893, T H Holland coined the term after Job Charnock, traditionally regarded as the founder of Calcutta (now Kolkata), whose tombstone in St. John Church in Kolkata was made from this rock.