Nashik - Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh

The pilgrimage tradition at Nashik is ancient; the earliest documented reference to the Simhastha gathering by that name dates to the 1695 CE Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh, with the modern Mela infrastructure rebuilt for each cycle. The Trimbakeshwar Mandir as it stands today is an 18th-century Hemadpanti stone reconstruction by the Peshwa ruler Balaji Bajirao (Nanasaheb), set at the feet of Brahmagiri where the Godavari is born.

In the 1700s a dispute over snan precedence between the Vaishnava and Shaiva Akharas was arbitrated by the Peshwa rulers, who established the enduring dual-ghat tradition: the Vaishnava Akharas bathe at Ramkund in Nashik, while the Shaiva Akharas bathe at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar. Coordinated today by the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority, set up by the Government of Maharashtra, with the Nashik Municipal Corporation, the Mela rises again every cycle around Panchavati and the Trimbak grounds. In 2017, UNESCO inscribed the Kumbh Mela on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Ramkund itself is woven into legend: it is held to be where Lord Ram performed the shraddha (last rites) of his father Dasharatha, and the kund is believed to “absorb” the bones of the departed - for which reason families across India bring asthi (ashes) here for immersion. A short walk away lie Sita Gufa, the cave where Sita is said to have sheltered, and the black-stone Kalaram Mandir, while the five ancient banyans that give Panchavati its name still stand by the river. At Trimbakeshwar, ~30 km up the Godavari at the foot of Brahmagiri, the Jyotirlinga is unique in showing three faces - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Tridev) - and the temple is the principal centre in India for the Narayan Nagbali and Kaal Sarp Shanti rites. The Simhastha thus joins two of Sanatana Dharma’s deepest currents: the Ramayana of the plains and the Shaiva tapasya of the hills.