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THE TOWN OF TRIMBAK

Godavari - from the hills
Kushavarta Kund and Brahmagiri hills
I donot know why and how, but I develop some sort of connection with rivers. My connect with the Godavari river extends back into my late teenage years while on my regular travels to and fro my engineering college in Chennai and my home town Bhubaneswar...when the Coramandel Express roared into the bridge on the Godavari at Rajahmundry. 

Everytime, I used to lie down at the lower side berth of the train and feel the vastness of the river with the metallic sound of the train engines  and the reverberating rail bridge filling the space in between. Once the train reached the bridge, I would see people throwing coins into the river, whose majestic width extended beyond five kilometers from Rajahmundry to Kovvur. Locals believe that making a wish while throwing a coin into the river helps fulfill wishes. Sometimes, faith has strange manifestations. Often, faith and logic don't walk the path together. The pursuit of engineering study ended and life took a different route soon. A long distance train travel soon turned out to be an unaffordable luxury and life offered quite a few things but at the expense of time. The memories of the river breeze breaking on the face over the Godavari soon gave way to newer memories.
Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga

During 2019,  more than two decades after my earlier experience with the majestic Godavari, I met her again. This time...at the place of her birth...as a tiny stream...in a small town named Trimbak near Nashik...as she streamed out from the beautiful Brahmagiri hills of the Sahyadris. 

Take a step into this town and sense a 
Minor Kunds on the Godavari
feeling which is deeply associated with something really old and ancient. The Sahyadris have been there since last 150 million years, ever since the Western Ghats of India were formed. 

An ancient peak and the origin of a mighty river...as if this is not enough, right below the  Brahmagiri hills, sits the Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga. For those who believe in the power of the Jyotirlingas, their origin and history, can well appreciate the spiritual significance of such a setting. 

The river flows out from the Brahmagiri  to the Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga carrying the stories of different sages and the myths of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. At Trimbakeshwar, Godavari settles down at Kushavarta Kund and then gathers her direction towards Nashik. Again, faith has no logic, but for those who connect with the location, Kushavarta Kund with the ancient temples around is more than just a picturesque present.

After leaving the Kushavarta Kund, Godavari assimilates a few more streams on her way, picks volume and by the time she reaches Nashik, she is way mightier than the thin stream she is a few kilometers above in the hills. The Hindu religious significance of the Godavari is immense at the Ramkund in Nashik with the city being one of the hosts of the Kumbh.



Godavari - Ramkund

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