Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANTWERP CENTRAL STATION

 As deep as I can peep into my past, I always sense very fond and nostalgic memories of railway stations. So many moments of  childhood began and ended in railway stations. My love for railway stations continues and whenever I get a chance I don't miss a visit into a station to experience the magical energy of the mixed sound of thousands of  fast moving footsteps and eager voices. European settings provide infinite moments to any traveler. Antwerp is no exception too. Like any other  European city with a strong medieval connect, Antwerp owns its history and legends. While it may take pages to write about Antwerp, let me restrict this post to the first landmark of Antwerp, its getaway - its very own train station, the Antwerp Central, located in Koningin Astreidplein, in the heart of the city.   The brainchild of King Leopold II and designed by Louis Delacenserie, Antwerp Central, with its stone clad structure and huge dome, has s...
20 comments
Read more

THE CLASSIC RIVALRY OF OLD ZAGREB

We stood there absorbing the beautiful sunset that Old Zagreb, locally known as Gornji Grad, offered. The February evening was delightfully clear and presented a view to remember. In front of us,  mingling with the red tiled roofs, dominated majestically the two famous monuments - the Zagreb Cathedral of Kaptol and the St. Mark's Church of Gradec...along with the bits and the pieces of the historic panorama of a thousand years.  Few centuries back, during the medieval period, when the region was not known as Zagreb, existed two hill top settlements - the Kaptol and the Gradec, separated by the then existing rivulet Medvescak. The Kaptol housed the Cathedral and was the religious center while the Gradec was home to the merchants and the craftsmen. It took the two settlements centuries of bitter rivalry before prudence took over and they decided to unify during the nineteenth century, thus together becoming Zagreb. The reasons for this bitterness were many ranging from s...
3 comments
Read more

LAKE TITISEE AND THE BLACK FOREST

Just about an hour's drive from the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen can take you to a different sort of forested mountain range...which dates back to the Roman era. Located in Germany's Baden-Wurttemberg and very close to the French border. and known locally as "Schwarzwald", this dark canopy of evergreen pines and firs block out most of the day light thus creating an almost dark effect within the forests. The cold fog adds to the aura making these almost eerily beautiful. Add to the setting, the well preserved medieval villages with their vineyards, waterfalls, hiking trails, castles and rivers. Not to forget that the Black Forest is the setting for  Grim Brothers' Fairy Tales. The tale of Hansel and Gretel took shape here. So did the fables of Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty...in these forests and castles around.  At the heart of the Black Forest, sits cozily the largest natural lake of the region, with the name Titisee. With prehistoric glacial origin an...
1 comment
Read more