Nasik

Nashik stands on the Godavari, whose waters make the city a revered Hindu pilgrimage centre. Tradition places Rama, Sita and Lakshmana at nearby Panchavati during their exile, and relates the city’s name to the episode in which Lakshmana cut off the nose of Shurpanakha. At Ramkund, a sacred pool beside the river, pilgrims gather among temples and rest houses. The Godavari rises in the hills near Trimbak before flowing east across the Deccan.

Under the Marathas in the eighteenth century Nashik gained new temples, riverfront bathing places and neighbourhoods. Patrons associated with the Peshwas and other leading families endowed shrines and pools along the Godavari. The Kapaleshwar temple dates to 1738, while the Kalaram temple was built under the patronage of the Odhekar family later in the century. The new quarter of Navapura grew north of the Sarasvati stream, with mansions and temples reflecting the wealth of Maratha patrons. Religious gatherings brought visitors to the river, including the Kumbh Mela held at intervals of twelve years. The city’s sacred landscape thus developed through the offerings of rulers, officials and worshippers around a river already celebrated in the Ramayana tradition.