Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple
— — where the river starts as a thought.
Not only on a wall.
“A black-basalt temple at the foot of Brahmagiri Hill, west of Nashik, holding one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva. The lingam here is unusual: three small faces in stone for Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, worn smooth by water and centuries of pilgrim touch. The Godavari river begins on the hill above, runs through the temple tank as the Kushavarta, and continues across the Deccan to the Bay of Bengal. The Peshwa Balaji Bajirao rebuilt the temple in 1755. Mornings carry the smell of wet stone and marigold. — from the studio
Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Trimbakeshwar stands in the town of Trimbak, about 28 kilometres west of Nashik in Maharashtra, at the foot of Brahmagiri Hill. The current temple is built of dark Deccan basalt and was completed in 1755 under the Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, replacing an older shrine on the same site. It is counted among the twelve Jyotirlingas, the most sacred sites of Shiva in India, and the only one where the lingam shows three faces — for Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva together. The Godavari river, the longest in peninsular India, rises on Brahmagiri above the temple.
The Godavari begins as a slow seep high on Brahmagiri Hill and gathers in the Kushavarta kund inside the temple complex, the stone tank counted as the river's ritual source. From there it flows roughly 1,465 kilometres east across the Deccan plateau, through Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, to the Bay of Bengal — the second-longest river in India after the Ganges. The Kumbh Mela returns to Trimbakeshwar and Nashik once every twelve years, drawing millions of pilgrims to bathe at the kund. The water at the source is cool year-round and runs lowest at the end of the dry season in May.
Trimbak is reached by road from Nashik in under an hour, with frequent state buses and shared jeeps from the city. The temple opens before dawn and closes around 21:00, with the main darshan crowded through the morning. Only Hindus may enter the inner sanctum; the outer courts and the Kushavarta kund are open to all. Photography is restricted inside the temple. A separate trail climbs Brahmagiri Hill behind the complex to the Godavari source itself, about 750 steps up. Modest dress is expected, and leather items must be left at the entrance.