Kushavarta Kund

At a glance

• Town — Trimbakeshwar, Nashik district, Maharashtra — about 30 km from Nashik
• River — Godavari — the tradition holds this kund to be its source
• Beside — the Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga, one of the twelve
• Amrit Snan — the Shaiva akhadas bathe here — 12 September 2027 in the coming Simhastha
• Above it — the Brahmagiri hill, from which the river is said to descend

Where the river is said to begin

The Godavari rises on the Brahmagiri hill above Trimbakeshwar. The stream that comes down the hillside disappears, and the tradition holds that it surfaces again in the stone tank of Kushavarta — which is therefore treated, ritually, as the true source of the river.

The name comes from the story of the sage Gautama, who is said to have held the descending river in place with a ring of kusha grass — kusha-avarta, the circle of kusha. It is a small tank, walled and stepped, and standing at it is a strange experience for anyone who has seen the Godavari in its lower reaches as a great river of the Deccan.

Trimbakeshwar

A few steps away stands the Trimbakeshwar temple, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas — and unusual among them, because the linga here has three faces, held to represent Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva together.

The town is also one of the principal places in India for the rites of Narayan Nagbali, Kalsarpa Shanti and Tripindi Shraddha — remedial ceremonies performed for ancestral obstruction. Pilgrims come for these all year round, quite apart from any mela.

At the Simhastha

At the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha the Shaiva akhadas take their Amrit Snan here at Kushavarta, while the Vaishnava akhadas bathe at Ramkund in Nashik on a separate day. In the coming cycle that means 12 September 2027 at Kushavarta, the day after the Vaishnavas at Ramkund.

Because the kund itself is small and the town is compact and hemmed in by hills, Trimbakeshwar on a snan day is among the most tightly managed spaces in any Kumbh. Movement is controlled hours in advance, vehicles are stopped far out, and the walk in is long. Plan for that, and arrive the day before rather than the morning of.