Which temples are there on the river at Nashik?

The Kalaram temple is the temple of Ram, named for its black image of him, and it is where people go first. The temple tells that it is built on the ground Ram lived on during the exile, and that its images came out of the Godavari.

The Kapaleshwar temple is the temple of Shiva on the rise above Ramkund. A लिङ्ग ling is the form Shiva is worshipped in, an upright stone in the shrine. A नन्दी Nandi is the bull who sits outside a Shiva temple facing the ling. At Kapaleshwar there is no Nandi, and the temple tells a story of a calf who showed Shiva the way to be rid of Brahma’s skull, in the river below.

Muktidham is not on the river. It is the white marble temple out at Nashik Road, near the railway station, built in 1971, with copies of all twelve jyotirlings inside it, each one made to the size of the original and made holy at its own shrine before it was set there.

Right beside Ramkund is a small temple to the river herself. Inside are Godavari and Bhagirath — the goddess of this river and the king who, in the old story, brought the Ganga down from heaven, which is why the Godavari is called Ganga here. Gopikabai, the mother of the Peshwa Madhavrao, built it in 1775, the same Gopikabai who repaired Ramkund.

What makes it different from every other temple on the bank is its door. It stays shut for eleven years. On Kartik Purnima, once in twelve years, it is opened, and it stays open for a year, through the Simhastha, and then it is closed again until the next one. If you are in Nashik for the Kumbh you will see it open. If you are here any other year, you will see a closed door beside the pool, and now you know why.

This is what Nashik tells.

The Vitthal temple, close to Ramkund, has the Vitthal of Pandharpur in it — the same god, not a copy. A band of pilgrims were walking to Pandharpur, the way people still do, and one of them could not keep up. They left him at Nashik and went on. He sat down by the river and would not eat, because he was not going to see the god. And the god came to him — Vitthal himself, in his own form, hands on his hips the way he stands at Pandharpur — and told him not to grieve, and promised to stay at Nashik. That is the Vitthal in the temple.

Naroshankar’s temple, further along the bank, is the one with the bell. Naroshankar built the temple — the Rameshwara temple, by the god inside — and the big bell that hangs in the wall round it is called by his name, Naroshankar’s bell. In the river in front of this temple is the Ramgaya tirtha, where Ram did the rites for his father. The tirthas on the Godavari tells that.

Sunder Narayan’s temple is across the water from Kapaleshwar’s, on rising ground where the river makes its first bend. Inside is Narayan, with Lakshmi beside him. People say the temple was built so that on one morning of the year, in March, the rising sun comes in through the door and falls on Narayan’s feet. Chandrachud built it.

Nilkantheshwar’s temple faces east across the river, and its ling was set up by Janak, Sita’s father, when he came to the Godavari. Nashik gives Janak a bathing place on the river as well, the Dashashvamedh tirtha, where he made his sacrifices.

Talkuteshwar’s temple is a small Mahadev temple and it is named for the man who built it, a tailor called Talkute. That is the whole story, and people like it — a tailor’s temple on the same river as the Peshwas’.

The old Balaji temple is in the old city near the river, and Balaji, people say, looks after his devotees when the planets turn against them.

Most of the big ones were built in the time of the Peshwas, by the men who governed Nashik for them and by the women of the Peshwa’s own family. Gopikabai built the Ganga Godavari temple and repaired Ramkund. Naroshankar built his temple and Chandrachud built Sunder Narayan’s. Sardar Rangrao Odhekar built the Kalaram temple, and the Kolis built Kapaleshwar’s. A tailor built Talkuteshwar’s.

Start at Ramkund, because everything is measured from it. The Ganga Godavari temple is beside the pool — look at the door. The Kapaleshwar temple is up the steps on the rise behind. The Vitthal temple is a short walk. Then follow the bank along to Naroshankar’s, and you will hear about the bell before you see it.

Cross the river for Sunder Narayan’s, which looks back at Kapaleshwar’s from its own rise, and for Nilkantheshwar’s, which faces the water. Talkuteshwar’s is the small one people point out because of the tailor.

Then go back to the Kalaram temple, the banyans and Sita Gufa, which Panchavati walks you through.