The Godavari is the longest river of peninsular India, running roughly 1,465 km from Trimbakeshwar in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra to the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh. She is called Dakshin Ganga (Ganga of the South) on the strength of a puranic story in which Sage Gautama brings the Ganga down from Shiva’s matted hair to the Brahmagiri hill at Trimbak. Her source is a kunda at the base of the Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga temple, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva. The Godavari is also one of the four Kumbh Mela rivers, with the Sinhastha Kumbh at Nashik held every twelve years.
Why she is called Dakshin Ganga
The Brahma Purana and Padma Purana preserve the story that Sage Gautama, living with his wife Ahalya on the Brahmagiri hill, was accused by other rishis of causing the death of a cow that had been left in his field by their trickery. To atone for the inadvertent gohatya, Gautama performed severe penance to bring the Ganga down to wash the spot. Shiva, propitiated, released a stream of Ganga from his jata onto the hill; the stream is the Godavari, also called Gautami Ganga. The river is therefore considered an embodiment of the Ganga in the south, and asthi-visarjan and shraadh rites performed on her banks carry the same merit as those at Haridwar or Kashi.
The kunda at Trimbakeshwar where the Godavari first emerges is shown to pilgrims; the actual perennial flow begins at Kushavarta Kund, a stepped tank about half a kilometre downhill, where she is considered to have appeared in fully visible form. Pilgrims bathe at Kushavarta and offer water at the Trimbakeshwar shrine. The temple is open daily and the river kunda is open through daylight hours.
Course of the river
From Trimbak the Godavari flows east through Nashik, Paithan (the ancient Pratishtana), Nanded, into Telangana past Basar (the Saraswati temple) and Bhadrachalam (the Rama temple), into Andhra Pradesh at the gorge cut through the Eastern Ghats at Polavaram, splitting into the seven distributaries at Rajahmundry that form the Konaseema delta before reaching the Bay of Bengal. The river’s basin covers about 312,800 sq km, the second-largest in India after the Ganga’s.
The major tirthas along her course are:
- Trimbakeshwar (Nashik district, Maharashtra): the source kunda and the Jyotirlinga temple.
- Panchavati at Nashik: associated with Rama’s exile in the Ramayana; the spot where Lakshmana cut Surpanakha’s nose, the cave of Sita-Gufa, and the Kalaram temple.
- Paithan: the home of Sant Eknath (16th century) and an ancient capital of the Satavahana dynasty.
- Basar (Telangana): the Saraswati temple where children are initiated into reading and writing.
- Bhadrachalam (Telangana): the Sita-Rama temple built by the saint Bhakta Ramadasu in the 17th century.
- Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh): the Godavari Pushkaram bathing site and the city of the Vemulawada chalukyas.
Pushkaram: the twelve-year festival
Each of the major sacred rivers has a Pushkaram (also written Pushkara) festival once every twelve years, marked when Jupiter (Brihaspati) enters the rashi (zodiac sign) associated with that river. Godavari Pushkaram is held when Jupiter enters Simha (Leo). The 2015 Godavari Maha Pushkaram, held from 14 to 25 July, was one of the largest in recent decades; tens of millions of pilgrims bathed at Rajahmundry, Bhadrachalam, Nashik and the other Pushkar ghats over the twelve-day period.
The Sinhastha Kumbh Mela at Nashik, held on roughly the same astrological cycle, brings the Kumbh-Mela tradition of Allahabad and Haridwar to the Godavari. The 2015 Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh ran from 14 July to 25 September. The next is in 2027.
The Ramayana connection at Panchavati
Rama, Sita and Lakshmana spent part of their fourteen-year exile in Panchavati on the Godavari’s bank at present-day Nashik. The Aranya Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana (chapters 14-69) places almost all of the exile-period episodes here: the meeting with Jatayu, the encounter with Surpanakha and Khara, and the abduction of Sita by Ravana. The five banyan trees that gave Panchavati its name are no longer all there, but the Sita-Gufa cave and the Kapaleshwar temple at Nashik commemorate the period.
The Kalaram temple at Panchavati, with a black-stone Rama murti, was built in 1788 by Sardar Odhekar; the temple’s mandap has thirty-six pillars and the principal shikhara is in the Hemadpanthi style. For what it’s worth, the early morning aarti at Kalaram, before the day’s pilgrim flow arrives, is a quieter introduction to Panchavati than the riverside ghats during a Pushkaram peak.
Saints and the river
The Godavari’s banks have a long line of bhakti saints. Sant Eknath (1533-1599) lived at Paithan and produced the Eknathi Bhagavata, a Marathi commentary on the eleventh book of the Bhagavata Purana. The Telugu poet Pothana (15th century) wrote the Andhra Mahabharatamu and the Pothana Bhagavatamu at Bammera, on a Godavari tributary. Bhakta Ramadasu (Kancherla Gopanna, 17th century) built the Bhadrachalam temple and composed Telugu kirtans on Rama that are still sung in Karnataka and Andhra carnatic kacheris. The Sadguru Vasudevananda Saraswati (1854-1914), a Marathi-speaking Dattatreya tradition saint, did intensive sadhana at the Brahmagiri.
Common questions
Where does the Godavari originate?
At Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district of Maharashtra, at the Brahmagiri hill at about 1,067 metres elevation. The source kunda sits behind the Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga temple; perennial flow begins at Kushavarta Kund, about half a kilometre away. Trimbakeshwar is roughly 28 km from Nashik city and is connected by frequent bus and taxi service.
Why is the Godavari called Gautami?
The Brahma Purana names Sage Gautama as the one whose penance brought the Ganga down to the south, and the river is called Gautami Ganga in his honour. The principal distributary in the delta in Andhra Pradesh is called the Gautami Godavari, preserving the same usage. The full canonical name is Gautami Ganga or Dakshin Ganga; Godavari is the everyday name.
When is the next Godavari Pushkaram?
The Pushkaram runs on a twelve-year cycle. The 2015 Pushkaram was held from 14 to 25 July; the next is scheduled for 2027 when Jupiter enters Simha (Leo) again. The Maha Pushkaram (which happens once every 144 years) was held in 2015 alongside the regular Pushkaram. The Nashik Sinhastha Kumbh, on roughly the same astrological cycle, is also next in 2027.
Can I do asthi-visarjan in the Godavari?
Yes. The Godavari is treated as ritually equivalent to the Ganga in the south. The principal asthi-visarjan ghats are at Trimbakeshwar (Kushavarta Kund), Nashik (Ramkund), Paithan, and Rajahmundry (Pushkar Ghat). Local priests at each site can guide the rite. For households in Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Godavari asthi-visarjan is the standard choice when Ganga travel is not practical.
What is the Konaseema delta?
The Konaseema is the delta region in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari and Konaseema districts where the Godavari splits into seven distributaries before meeting the Bay of Bengal. The seven branches are named Gautami, Vasishtha, Vainateya, Athreya, Tulya, Bharadwaja and Kausika, after the Sapta Rishis. The Vasishtha and Gautami are the main channels carrying perennial flow today.
One limitation worth noting
Pushkaram dates and Kumbh Mela dates are set by the Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state governments based on the astrological calculations; the exact start and end dates each cycle are published a year or two before the festival, and the bathing-window dates within the festival vary slightly. For the next cycle’s confirmed dates, the state tourism boards (Maharashtra Tourism) and the Wikipedia article on the Godavari River are the practical references. This article does not list daily seva costs because those are set by the temple administrations and revised periodically.
