Trimbakeshwar Temple

Trimbak has been a centre of pilgrimage and Vedic learning for many centuries, as the town at the source of the Godavari. It is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas named in the traditional stotra, and the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha is one of the four Kumbh Melas of India. The town has long been home to Brahmin families, Vedic pathshalas, ashrams and maths. Its hereditary priests keep genealogy registers in which they record the family histories of visiting pilgrims, generation after generation.

Trimbak is also sacred to the Marathi Bhakti tradition. Sant Nivruttinath, elder brother and guru of Sant Jnaneshwar and revered by the Varkaris, took samadhi here. Large Varkari yatras come to his samadhi every year on his punyatithi. According to the temple trust, it was at Nivruttinath's suggestion that Jnaneshwar wrote the Jnaneshwari, his Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.

The temple that stood here earlier is said in historical accounts to have been damaged during the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The present structure was built on the site of the older temple by Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, also called Nanasaheb, who held office from 1740 to 1761. According to the Shri Trimbakeshwar Devasthan Trust, the new temple was opened on Maha Shivaratri, Friday 16 February 1756, to the sound of shehnai, drums, tutari and ranshing. Other accounts say the work began in 1755 and continued until 1786, and put its cost at about ₹16 lakh, a vast sum at the time.

A popular anecdote tells that the Peshwa made a wager over whether the stone around the Jyotirlinga was hollow. It proved to be hollow, and having lost the bet he built the magnificent temple that stands today. The Kushavarta Tirtha in the town, regarded as the ritual source of the Godavari, was built by Shrimant Sardar Raosaheb Parnerkar, the Fadnavis of Indore State; busts of him and his wife stand at the edge of the tank.

The Jyotirlinga was once adorned with the Nassak Diamond, a large Indian diamond that takes its name from Nashik. It was taken by the British East India Company after the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–18), when the region, including the Brahmagiri fort above the town, passed to British control. The diamond later passed through private collections abroad.

In modern times the temple has been run by the Shri Trimbakeshwar Devasthan Trust, registered as a public trust in 1954. For several decades a single hereditary trustee looked after it. Since 1995 a board of trustees has managed the temple, chaired by a judge nominated by the Nashik District Judge.

In July 2026, while the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was draining and cleaning the temple's deep Peshwa-era Amrit Kund as part of conservation work, a stone Shiva lingam was found at the bottom of the tank. No official date has been assigned to it. The tank, also called Amritavarshini, supplies water for the Jyotirlinga's daily abhishek. The town is also being prepared for the 2026–28 Simhastha Kumbh Mela, with new facilities around Kushavarta Tirtha and the temple.

The temple is built of black basalt and is admired for its sculpture and graceful proportions. It is a fine example of the 18th-century Maratha temple style within the North Indian Nagara tradition. It stands in a large paved courtyard enclosed by a high stone wall with gateways on all four sides; the trust describes the east, west, south and north gates as symbolising beginning, maturity, fulfilment and revelation. The tall, curving shikhara over the sanctum is covered with rows of miniature spires and topped by a golden kalash. In front of it is a mandapa with carved pillars and doorways.

Inside the garbhagriha the visitor sees at first only the arghya (base) set into the floor, not a raised lingam. Looking closely, three small lingas, each about an inch high, can be seen in a hollow within it, representing Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This is the feature that sets Trimbakeshwar apart from the other Jyotirlingas. Water from the Godavari is said to seep up continuously into the hollow, and constant abhishek has worn the lingas down over time. After the morning puja a silver five-faced mask is placed over the arghya, and on special occasions a jewelled gold crown is shown. Tradition says the crown dates from the time of the Pandavas.

Within and around the precinct are the temple's tank, the Amrit Kund, and other sacred waters such as Bilvatirtha, Vishwanantirtha and Mukundatirtha. There are also shrines of Ganga, Jaleshwara, Rameshwara, Gautameshwara, Kedarnatha, Rama, Krishna, Parashurama and Lakshmi-Narayana. The town's monasteries and saints' samadhis, including that of Sant Nivruttinath, lie a short walk away, as does the Kushavarta Tirtha with its stone ghats and cloisters.