01Gautama and the Ganga of the south
The Shiva Purana tells how Maharshi Gautama lived on Brahmagiri with Ahalya and, through his tapas, kept the land green in a drought. Jealous rishis sent a cow into his field; when he drove it off with a blade of grass it fell dead, and Gautama was charged with go-hatya. To be cleansed he asked Shiva to bring the Ganga down. Mahadev granted it, and the river came as the Godavari, called Gautami after him. At Gautama’s plea Shiva stayed beside the spring as Tryambakeshvara. The stone spout at Kushavarta tirtha, where pilgrims bathe, is where the river is said to surface for good.
02The Peshwa’s temple
The black-stone temple standing now was begun by Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, known as Nanasaheb, in the 1750s and took some three decades to finish. Its tall shikhara, carved in rows of small replica towers, is one of the finest Maratha-period temples in the Nashik country. In the sanctum the lingas sit in a depression, and water from the Godavari constantly fills it. A great diamond, later called the Nassak Diamond, is recorded as an ornament of Tryambakeshvara; it passed to the East India Company after the fall of Peshwa Bajirao II in 1818 and left India. Every twelve years the Simhastha Kumbh is held at Nashik and Trimbak together.
The life of this place
- c. 1755Peshwa Balaji Bajirao begins the present temple.
- c. 1786The temple is completed after some three decades of work.
- 1818The Nassak Diamond, recorded as the temple’s ornament, passes to the East India Company after the Peshwa’s fall.
- 2015The Simhastha Kumbh is held at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar.
About 28 km from Nashik. Darshan of the lingas is from a step above the sanctum; the climb up Brahmagiri to the Godavari’s source takes a few hours.
