Trimbakeshwar Jyotirlinga

Darshan and aarti timings

The darshan hours are from the trust’s home page, the puja times from its "daily programme" page and the palkhi time from the trust’s news. That page prints the evening Vishnu puja with the morning time by mistake, so it is left out. According to the trust, times may change on festival days.

Source: trimbakeshwartrust.com·Checked: 5 October 2026·Times can change; check the official source before you go.

The story of Trimbakeshwar: the sage Gautama and the Ganga

According to the Shiva Purana (Kotirudra Samhita, chapters 24–27), the sage Gautama and Ahalya did penance on Brahmagiri. During a hundred-year drought Varuna gave Gautama a pit of water that never ran dry, so grain grew there and the sages settled. After a quarrel over water some sages propitiated Ganesha, who came into the field as a feeble cow; when Gautama drove it off with blades of grass it died, and the sages expelled Gautama.

As atonement Gautama worshipped Shiva to bring the Ganga. Shiva declared him sinless; the Ganga agreed to stay only if Shiva stayed too, and Shiva remained there as Tryambaka. The Ganga came out of Brahmagiri and was called the Gautami (Godavari), and Gautama made the Kushavarta below it. The Purana also says that when Jupiter enters Leo all the tirthas come to the Gautami; this is the tradition of the Simhastha.

The temple and the Simhastha

According to the Shri Trimbakeshwar Devasthan Trust, the present temple was built by the third Peshwa, Balaji Bajirao (Nanasaheb), on the site of an older one, and opened on Maha Shivratri, 16 February 1756. The saint Nivruttinath took samadhi at Trimbakeshwar.

In the Simhastha Kumbh the main bath is at the Kushavarta (trust). According to the Nashik district, the Shaiva and Udasin akhadas bathe at Trimbakeshwar and the Vaishnava akhadas at Nashik; the last Simhastha was in 2015-16, and for the next (2027) the Maharashtra government has set up a Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority.

How to reach Trimbakeshwar

• Road: about 28–30 km from Nashik city (trust, Nashik district).
• Rail: Nashik Road station, about 40 km (Nashik district).
• Airport: Nashik (Ozar), about 42 km; Mumbai 118 km (Maharashtra Tourism Jyotirlinga leaflet).

Main festivals

Where the sources differ

• The source of the Godavari: in the Shiva Purana the Ganga came out of Brahmagiri (at Gangadvara) and the Kushavarta was made below; the Maharashtra Tourism page calls the Kushavarta itself the origin of the Godavari and Gangadwar its first visible point.
• The cow: in the Shiva Purana Ganesha took the form of the cow at the sages’ request; the Nashik district page says Parvati sent a cow.
• Order: the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotra names Trimbakeshwar 10th (this site follows that order); the Shiva Purana's list (Kotirudra Samhita 1.21–23) runs in another order and names it 8th.

Frequently asked questions