Early modern · Hindu · India

Trimbakeshwar Temple

Trimbak, Nashik, Maharashtra · 19.9322°, 73.5309°

Shiva (three-faced linga: Brahma–Vishnu–Shiva)Maratha (Peshwa)Nagara (black basalt)Jyotirlinga

Sacred since

1755 CE

first attestation / structure

Standing structure

1755–1786

patron: Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb Peshwa)

History & significance

Jyotirlinga at the source of the Godavari beneath Brahmagiri hill — unique in that the linga shows three small faces for the Trimurti, crowned on occasion with a jewelled Nassak-diamond-lineage crown. The Peshwa-built basalt temple hosts the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela every twelve years and is the classic seat for Narayan-Nagbali ancestral rites.

Sthala katha — the legend

Sage Gautama, framed by jealous rishis for killing a cow, did penance until Shiva drew the Ganga down as the Godavari to purify him — the reluctant river seeping (as Ganga Gautami) from Brahmagiri drop by drop into the Kushavarta kund.

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