The Adam’s Bridge begins from

The answer is Dhanushkodi, the southeastern tip of Pamban island in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. The chain of shoals, sandbanks and limestone reefs runs from here, roughly 48 km, to Talaimannar on Mannar Island in Sri Lanka. The Ramayana links it to Lord Rama's army, which is why it is called Ram Setu in India.

Why the others are wrong:

• Mandapam is a coastal town on the mainland, from which the road and rail link to Rameswaram runs. It is not the starting point of the shoals.
• Pamban is the island that the Pamban rail bridge (opened 1914, often cited as India's first sea bridge) crosses. It is a link in the geography, not the origin of Adam's Bridge.
• Rameswaram is the island town and pilgrimage centre. It is a larger area that contains Dhanushkodi.

Core concept: the geography of the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar. For Mains, the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project brought the bridge's status into dispute, linking this map question to the debate over economics, ecology and religious sentiment.

Trap: candidates pick Pamban or Rameswaram because those are the names they associate with the bridge, but the question asks for the specific point of origin.