The Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela 2027
Once in about twelve years the Kumbh comes to Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, and this is the one coming in 2026 to 2028. This page is the record of it — what it is, when the authority says it runs, and which page to read for the story, the akhadas, the bathing days and the authority itself.
Ramkund, Nashik, and Kushavarta, Trimbakeshwar
The Vaishnav akhadas at the first, the Shaiva and Udasin at the second
31 October 2026
With the ceremonial flag hoisting
2 and 31 August, and 11–12 September 2027
The third on different days at the two towns
24 and 29 July 2028
Simhastha Samapti at Trimbakeshwar, then at Nashik
The dates
Every date here is published by the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority in its Kumbh Mela Plan, which states that it is interim and subject to revision. No formal government notification of the dates has been published.
Section I
What is the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela?
It is the Kumbh Mela held once in about twelve years at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, on the Godavari, when Jupiter stands in Leo. Why it is called Simhastha says how that day is fixed. The twelve-year cycle says why it comes round that often, and the four Kumbh places has the other three the same fair goes to. Every Kumbh comes out of one story, the churning of the ocean, and samudra manthan tells it whole. अमृत amrit is the drink that makes whoever drinks it deathless. Why the Kumbh comes to Nashik tells what Nashik says about the amrit that fell at Ramkund. An अखाड़ा akhada is an order of sadhus with its own head, its own rule, its own property and its own place in the bathing order at a Kumbh. This Kumbh is held in two towns and not one. The Vaishnav akhadas bathe at Ramkund in Nashik, and the Shaiva and Udasin akhadas at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar. Why the Kumbh is at two places has that arrangement in full. What is a Kumbh Mela says what happens at one.
Section II
When is the Kumbh?
The Kumbh period opens on 31 October 2026 with the ceremonial flag hoisting, the same day Jupiter enters Leo. The flag hoisting has what goes up and where. शाही स्नान shahi snan means the royal bath, and it is the akhadas’ bath on the main bathing days. The first and second shahi snan are scheduled for 2 August 2027 and 31 August 2027, in both Nashik and Trimbakeshwar. The third falls on different days at the two towns, 11 September 2027 in Nashik and 12 September 2027 in Trimbakeshwar. The shahi snan says what those days are and who bathes where. समाप्ति samapti means the end. The period closes with the Simhastha Samapti, the closing ceremony, on 24 July 2028 at Trimbakeshwar and 29 July 2028 at Nashik. The dates of the Kumbh 2027 has every dated day in a table, with the town each falls at.
A तिथि tithi is a day of the lunar calendar, counted from the new moon and from the full moon rather than from midnight. The tithi is published for 31 October 2026 only, because the Rashtriya Panchang for the years the other dates fall in is not yet published.
Section III
Who runs the Kumbh, and who comes to it?
The Kumbh Mela Authority is the body the Government of Maharashtra set up under a 2025 Act to plan and run this Kumbh. What is being built for the Kumbh has what it has approved so far. The sadhus who come, come in their akhadas, and the akhadas has all thirteen of them by name. Naga sadhus says who the ash-covered ones are. पेशवाई peshwai is each akhada’s ceremonial entry into the mela town before the bathing days, with its head carried in state and the nagas marching ahead. The peshwai has their procession into the two towns. They stay at Sadhugram, the camp built for them, and the past Simhasthas at Nashik has what the last one, in 2015–16, was like.
Section IV
Which page should you read first?
Start with what is a Kumbh Mela for the fair itself, or the akhadas for who comes to it. Samudra manthan has the story behind every Kumbh, and why the Kumbh comes to Nashik has the three reasons this one is here.
What the Kumbh is
What a Kumbh Mela is, the four places it goes round, why it comes once in about twelve years, and why this one is called the Simhastha.
What is a Kumbh Mela
A Kumbh Mela is a fair held at a river, at one of four places in India, once in about twelve years at each, when Jupiter stands in the sign that belongs to that place. What the two words mean, where and when the fair is held, what happens at one, why it is at those four places, and what the Kumbh at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar is called.
The four Kumbh places
The Kumbh Mela is held at four places in India — Haridwar on the Ganga, Prayag at the sangam of the Ganga and the Yamuna, Nashik and Trimbakeshwar on the Godavari, and Ujjain on the Kshipra. Where each one is, the river and the bathing place at each, the sign Jupiter stands in for each, when the last one was, and what the four have in common.
The twelve-year cycle
The Kumbh Mela comes to Nashik and Trimbakeshwar once in about twelve years because that is how long Jupiter takes to go round the zodiac and come back to Leo. Why it is Jupiter, how the same rule sends the Kumbh to Haridwar, Prayag and Ujjain in other years, what the Ardh Kumbh is, and what Nashik tells about where the number twelve comes from.
Why it is called Simhastha
The Kumbh at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar is called the Simhastha because it comes when Jupiter stands in Leo, the sign of the lion. What the name means, why it is Jupiter that matters, what the Gautami Mahatmya says about bathing in the Godavari in that year, what Nashik tells about it, and how the day Jupiter enters Leo is fixed.
The story behind it
The churning of the ocean that every Kumbh comes out of, the old text about the Godavari, and the three reasons Nashik gives for its own Kumbh.
Samudra manthan
The samudra manthan is the churning of the ocean — the gods and the asuras working together to churn the sea of milk for the amrit, and then fighting over the jar it came up in. It is the story every Kumbh Mela comes out of. Here it is in full, the way the Puranas tell it, and then what Nashik tells about where the jar went next.
What the old texts say
Two old stories sit behind the Kumbh at Nashik. One is the churning of the ocean. The other is about the river — the Ganga who was in Shiva's hair until the rishi Gautama brought her down onto Brahmagiri as the Godavari, and what Shiva said about bathing in her. Which text tells each, what is in it, where each story is told whole, and then what Nashik tells about the river and the year.
Why the Kumbh comes to Nashik
Nashik gives three reasons the Kumbh comes here. Drops of amrit fell at Ramkund at the churning of the ocean. The river is the Godavari, the Ganga of the south, which the rishi Gautama brought down onto Brahmagiri above Trimbakeshwar. And the Kumbh year is the year Jupiter stands in Leo. What each of the three is, told the way Nashik tells it, and why it takes two towns.
Nashik and Trimbakeshwar
Why this Kumbh is held in two towns and not one, and what the last Simhastha here was like.
Why the Kumbh is at two places
The Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela is the one Kumbh held in two towns. The Vaishnav akhadas bathe at Ramkund in Nashik and the Shaiva and Udasin akhadas at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar, an arrangement made by the Peshwas. The two towns, the two kunds, who bathes where, how the bathing days fall at each, and where the arrangement came from.
The past Simhasthas at Nashik
The last Simhastha at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar was in 2015–16, the one before in 2003–04, and the Kumbh comes round once in twelve years. What the 2015 Simhastha was — its dates, its camps, its bathing days and which orders came — and the one line there is for 2003–04.
The akhadas
The orders of sadhus who come to this Kumbh, the naga sadhus among them, their procession into the two towns, and the camp built for them.
The akhadas
An akhada is an order of sadhus with its own head, its own rule, its own property and its own place in the bathing order at a Kumbh. Thirteen come to this one, in three families — seven Shaiva, three Vaishnav and three Udasin — and they bathe in two towns, three at Ramkund in Nashik and ten at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar. What an akhada is, why there are three kinds, all thirteen by name, where they stay, and which page to read for each family.
Naga sadhus
Who the naga sadhus are, why they go without clothes and cover themselves in ash, which akhadas they belong to, how a sadhu becomes one, and where a visitor sees them at the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela.
The peshwai
The peshwai is the akhadas' procession — the ceremonial entry of an order of sadhus into the mela town, and the procession by which it goes down to the river on a bathing day. What the word names, what the government sources call it, the 2015 route at Nashik from the camp at Tapovan to Ramkund turn by turn, the routes through Trimbakeshwar to Kushavarta, and what a visitor sees.
Sadhugram
Sadhugram is the town of tents the Kumbh authority lays out for the sadhus, one at Tapovan in Nashik and one at Trimbakeshwar. Who lives there, how the land is divided into plots and who is given one first, what the camp has in it, what it was in 2015 and what is marked out for this Kumbh, and what happens to the ground when the Kumbh is over.
The bathing days
The flag hoisting that opens the Kumbh period, and the shahi snan, the akhadas' bath on the main bathing days.
The flag hoisting
The Kumbh period at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar opens with the dhwajarohan, the hoisting of the flag, at Ramkund and at Kushavarta. What the flag is, what the pole is and what stands on it, the new bronze flagpole approved for the Ganga Godavari temple at Ramkund, the two hoistings of 2015, and the lowering of the flag that ends the period.
The shahi snan
The shahi snan is the akhadas' bath on the main bathing days of the Kumbh, when the orders of sadhus go to the river in procession and bathe before everyone else. What the word means, what the authority calls it for this Kumbh, who bathes at Ramkund and who at Kushavarta, the three baths and how the third falls at the two towns, and what a visitor sees on the day.
The authority
The body the Government of Maharashtra set up to run this Kumbh, and what it has approved to build for it.
The Kumbh Mela Authority
The Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority is the body the Government of Maharashtra set up in 2025 to plan and run the Kumbh at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar. What the authority is, who sits on it, what the Act makes it responsible for, the committees above it, what it has published, and how to reach it.
What is being built for the Kumbh
The Kumbh Mela Authority has sanctioned a Kumbh Mela Plan for the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela 2027 and issues administrative approval orders for the works in it. What the Plan is, how a work is approved, and the roads, ghats, water, power, safety, health and camp works approved so far, each with the amount the authority has printed for it.
Where do the facts on this page come from?
Every fact above is drawn from the sources named below.