Who built the Trimbakeshwar temple, and who has run it since?

Balaji Bajirao was the third Peshwa, and the temple went up between 1740 and 1760, on the site of an old temple. The Marathas had taken the fort at Trimbak from the Nizam in 1742, and Brahmagiri has the fort. The Trimbakeshwar temple has the building he put up.

The temple opened on Mahashivratri, in February 1756. The whole of Trimbakeshwar rang with the instruments that day — the shehnai and the chaughada, which is the set of drums that goes with it, and with them the bheri, a kettledrum, the tutari, a trumpet, and the ranashing, a horn.

Nanasaheb Peshwa appointed Naro Damodar Jogalekar to look after the temple, and arranged for all its expenses, year after year. That meant paying for everyone the temple needed. Three pujaris for the three pujas of the day, and one for the other gods, and one for the rites to the Ganga. Two men to walk round Brahmagiri. A puranik to tell the Puranas and a haridas for the kirtan and the aarti. Six shagirds, who are attendants, two cooks, two clerks, a storekeeper and his assistant, and an accountant. Thirteen soldiers. Four bearers for the palanquin, a man to carry the abdagiri, which is the ceremonial sunshade, a torch-bearer, a boy to bring bel leaves, a guard, a conch-blower, three timekeepers, a gunner, two drummers, a man for the big drum, a cymbal player, four shehnai players, and four more for the pipes and horns that go with them. Two gardeners, a labourer, and one sweeper to clean the road from the temple to Kushavarta. Over all of them was the Karbhari, the manager, who answered for their work.

The Peshwa’s rule ended in 1818, and the arrangement did not. The British kept it going, and today the government gives the temple a nominal grant.

The Jogalekars kept the charge of the temple for more than two hundred years, eight of them in turn. Naro Damodar and Madhav Hari Jogalekar from 1752, Visaji Tryambak from 1801, Damodar Govind and Kashinath Trimbak from 1823, Narayan Kashinath from 1834 to 1898, Madhavrao Narayan from 1898 to 1959, and Hanumant Madhavrao from 1959 to 1976.

The god has his own things for going out — the lavajama — and most of it came from the Peshwas and the men round them. There are two palanquins. There is a crown studded with jewels, and it has a history of its own. It was with the king of Mysore first. Then the Mughals took it to Delhi. Later Bhausaheb Peshwa brought it and offered it to the god at Trimbakeshwar, and it has been here since.

There is a chariot. A रथ rath is a chariot, the tall wheeled car a god is drawn through the streets in. This one was offered to the god by a nobleman, Raghunathrao Vitthal Dani, in the month of Kartik in 1865, and it was made to be drawn by the worshippers themselves on the fair days. And there are the ornaments the god wears — a kalgi, which is a crest for the turban, a shirpech, which is a plume for it, a pearl necklace, an umbrella, two chamars, the fly-whisks, four morchels, the fans of peacock feathers, two abdagiris, and the clothes and the silver for the puja and the naivedya, the food offered to the god.

Trimbak was Peshwa territory all through the years the temple was going up and after. In 1767 it was one of the places the Peshwa Madhavrao agreed to give to his uncle Raghunathrao. In 1818, at the end of the war between the Peshwa and the British, Trimbak and its fort passed to the British.

In 1954 the temple’s sansthan was registered as a public trust. In 1976 the last of the Jogalekars resigned the trusteeship the family had inherited, and appointed Prabhakar Ramchandra Gokhale in his place, who was the sole trustee until 1995.

In 1995 a board of trustees took over. A judge appointed by the district judge was its chairman, the chief officer of the Trimbak Municipal Council was its secretary, and three citizens of the town sat on it with them.

Then, by order of the Supreme Court, the board became one of nine. The chief officer of the Municipal Council is its secretary, as before, and the seats go to a representative of the Tungar trust, a representative of the Purohit Sangh, a representative of the pujaks, the ones who do the puja, and four devotees appointed by the charity commissioner. A पुरोहित purohit is the priest who performs a rite for a family and makes the offerings in the family’s name. The Purohit Sangh is the body of the town’s own purohits, and the priests at Trimbakeshwar has who they are. That board is Shri Trimbakeshwar Devsthan Trust, and it is what runs the temple now.

Go on a Monday. The crown that came from Mysore by way of Delhi goes on the god before the palanquin leaves the temple, and you can follow it through the lanes to Kushavarta. Go at the full moon of Kartik and the chariot comes out. The building itself is Nanasaheb’s, and the Trimbakeshwar temple is where to go next.