Godavari

Godavari river is one of the seven sacred rivers in India. It is also known as Dakshin Ganga as it covers a distance of 1465kms and becomes the second longest river after Ganges. It originates near Triambak in Nashik District of Maharastra and flows to east across the Deccan plateau into Bay of Bengal near Narsapuram in west Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.

Thus it flows from western to southern part of India covering seven states (including Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Chattisgarh) and is considered to be one of the big river basins in India.

It enters into Andhra near Kandhakurthi of Nizamabad district and flows towards the south east direction into Bay of Bengal. Some of the famous temples are located on the banks of the river Godavari.

• Basara- Saraswati Devi temple is one of them , It becomes the second temple for the goddess in India. 
    
  
• Dharmapuri- Lord Shri Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy Temple is located here.
• Triambak – Lord shiva temple is located here and is known as Triambakeshwar. This is a very ancient temple and Hindus believe it as a reason of calling Godavari as Dakshin Ganga. It is one among the tenjyotirlingas.  
  
                                  
• Badrachalam – Lord Shri Rama temple is located here. According to hindu mythology, Rama has crossed the river during his vanavasam and lived in the forests. The view of papi kondalu while visiting the temple is described as one of the beautiful journey by many of the travellers.
  
  
• Nashik -- It is a holy place and also the Kumbhamela site.
  
• Nanded – us for sachkhand gurudwara.
• Dhavaleshwaram – River spilts as Vriddha Gautami and Vashista before joining Bay of Bengal.
• Antarvedi – Famous Lakshmi Narasimha swamy temple is located here. It belongs to 15^th century. Here you can find a more ancient temple of Lord Shiva in which idol is installed by Lord Shri Rama.

         Every 12 years, A fair is conducted at the banks of Godavari River, It is known as Pushkaram. Crores of people visit for a holy dip in the sacred waters to purify themselves of all the sins.

 

The major tributaries of Godavari are Indravati, Manjira, Bindusara and Sabari. It has a drainage area of 312,812 km2 that includes more than one state which is nearly one-tenth of India. At Rajmundry which is the second largest city onbanks of Godavari it takes the widest form of approximately 5kms i.e., From Rajahmundry to other bank Kovvur. Nashik is the Largest city on the bank of this river.

Myth:-

            A sage Gautama lived on the Brahmagiri hills at Trayambakeshwar with his wife Ahalya. One day a cow enters his granary and ate up all the rice he preserved. Rishi tries to make the cow go away from the stock yard with the help of a Durbha grass when the cow fells down and dies. Sage Gautama wants himself to get relieved from the sin of killing a cow (Gohatya) as cow is sacred animal for Hindus. He prays to Lord Shiva and requests him to bring goddess ganga to purify his hermitage. 

            Lord Shiva pleased with the prayers of sage appears as Triambaka and brings the river ganga along with him. However, Ganges was not prepared to part with Lord Shiva, which irritated him. He made TandavNrutya (dance) on the peak of Brahmagiri and dashed his jata there. Frightened by this action, Ganges appeared on Brahmagiri. Later on Ganges appeared in the Trimbak Tirtha.

 Gautama praised her but she off and on appeared on the mountain at various places and disappeared in anger. Gautama could not bathe in her waters. Ganges then appeared in Gangadwar, Varaha-tirtha, Rama-Laxman tirtha, Ganga Sagar tirtha. Still Gautama could not bathe in her waters. The Gautama surrounded the river with enchanted grass and put a vow to her. The flow stopped there and the tirtha thus came to be called Kushavarta. It is from this Kushavarta that the river Godavari flows up to the sea. The sin of killing a cow by Gautama was wiped off here. Since Gautama has brought the river with him it is also known as Gautami.

            It was also believed that Parvati being jealous of Ganga and Lord shiva has asked Jaya her friend to take the form of cow and come to Gautama ashram.So that they can be separated for some time.