Panchavati (Nashik)

Famous for: Panchavati and Godavari ghat, Dudhsagar waterfall, Trimbakeshwar and Anjaneri


How to reach: From Pune, the travel will take around 6 to 8 hrs depending on traffic. Good way is to stay in Nashik for a night or opt for night travel as the road between Nashik and Pune will not allow you to even overtake a vehicle  Start from Pune in the evening you will reach Nashik by night. Start for Trimbakeshwar early next morning, as the day proceeds the visitors may increase. After Darshan you can spend the evening in Nashik, visit all the places near Panchvati and return to Pune.

We went to Nashik via shirdi, we started from Shirdi in the afternoon, en-route to Nashik we found many road side stalls selling onions(it was a time when prices were high!!)...You can find many wind mills harvesting the wind energy. The road from Shirdi to Nashik is a single lane and the traffic was horrible after crossing Sinnar. (Later i found a site with alternate route http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/96581-pune-nashik-alternate-route.html)
To avoid heavy traffic our driver has routed through the camp area in Deolali(near Nashik). It was nearly evening by the time we reached Nashik. We wanted to cover the areas in Nashik on that day itself, so we went directly to Panchavati
. We arranged a guide to all the places in Panchavati as we had very less time.

Godavari ghat, sangam of Godavari, Aruna & Varuna

Our first visit was the confluence of rivers Godavari, Aruna and Varuna(latter two can't be seen will merge with Godavari underneath). It was the same spot where Lord Ram has spread the ashes of his father King Dasarath during exile. This Ghat is also the place where Lakshman has cut the nose of Surpanaka(nose is also called as nasik in sanskrit), hence the name Nashik.

Kapaleshwar Temple

Then we went to Kapaleshwar temple, visiting this temple is equivalent to visiting all the jyotirlinga!!!. 

Sita Gufaa

Then we went to the place where Sita was hidden by Ram. Visitors are allowed to enter the cave..we crawled through the path..The place is built with stone. Ram has planted 5 banyan tress to identify this place in the then jungle(hence the name Panchavati). There are many small temples nearby. Then we went to small temple dedicated to Ram and a museum depicting the life story of Ram. 

Kala Ram Temple

Built by Peshwas in 17th century the temple is very spacious...idol of Lord Ram is black in colour and in front of the main temple there will be an area dedicated to Hanuman with 40 pillars each representing a verse in Hanuman chalisa. The other specialty of this temple i,s it is so designed that the first sun rays touch the feet of Lord Ram during March 21st. The temple has a summit made with 32 tons of gold presented by the Queen of Indore. Only those stones that didn't break even in extreme heat are used for construction of the temple...a temple with lot of history and significance...

Hanuman temple

How can one ignore Hanuman in the places where Ram has stayed..we ended our day visiting 11.5 ft hanuman idol..

There are many good economic hotels in Nashik. Tried of all travel we took rested early..and started for Trimbakeshwar next morning.

places yet to visit...

Apart from these there are other prominent places dudhsagar waterfalls, Gangapur dam, sundarnarayan temple and Anjaneri, which is 20 kms on the way to Trimbakeshwar. Anjaneri has 108 jain temples and is birth place of Lord Hanuman.