Kalaram Temple

The Kalaram Temple stands in the Panchavati quarter of Nashik on the Godavari, the forest where the Ramayana says Rama, Sita and Lakshmana spent more than two years of their fourteen-year exile. It takes its name from its black stone image of Rama, kala meaning black, flanked by black images of Sita and Lakshmana.

A shrine stood here in the Rashtrakuta period of the seventh to eleventh centuries, and during the early Turkish invasions its Brahmins hid the idol in the Godavari. Around 1700 the Maratha sardar Rangarao Odhekar, guided by a dream, recovered the image and rebuilt the temple and reconsecrated the deity.

The building has fourteen entrance steps recalling the years of exile, eighty-four pillars, and a black Hanuman facing Rama's sanctum. The rebuilt temple became one of the principal Rama pilgrimage places of the Maratha Deccan.