At the time of the marriage of Lord Shiva with Parvati,
all the
Deva rishis gathered together. Brahma dev, the creator of the
Universe, seeing the beauty of Parvati, had a
discharge of
semen. Lord Shiva observing this, offered him
water of
Ganges, the purest water and said, "You will wipe off
your
sin by this water". Brahmadev kept the holy
water in his
kamandal (a particular container made
out of dried fruit
carried by Sadhus) and
was purified by its bath.
Tryambakeshwar, 30 km from Nashik in Maharashtra is revered as one of the
12 Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. It is here that the river Godavari is born.
This is an ancient shrine, bu t what we see today built
by the Peshwa Balaji Bajirao in mid 18th century. This great
JyotirLinga on the banks of Gautami has a unique form. The Lord in this
temple’s Grabhagriha is not worshipped with Abhisheka with water (Jalahari)
unlike others. There is just a bottom part of the pounding stone
(Ukhali), instead, like a hole. In that hole there are three Lingas shaped
like the Thumbs. Hence Tryambakeshwara. Of these three Lingas, the Linga of
Mahesha has a constant shower of water from an orifice above.
It is a natural source of water coming down as Abhisheka for the Lord.
Legend:- Brahma and Vishnu searched in vain to discover the origin of Shiva who manifested himself as a cosmic column of fire. Brahma lied that he had seen the top of the column of fire, and was hence cursed that he would not be worshipped on earth. In turn Brahma cursed Shiva that he would be pushed underground. Accordingly, Shiva came down under the Brahmagiri hill in the form of Tryambakeshwar. The shrine enjoyed the patronage of the Peshwas.
Another legend says that sage Gowtama resided on the Brahmagiri hill here with his wife Ahalya, and seeing his unflinching devotion received a boon from Varuna - a bottomless pit from which he received an inexhaustible supply of foodgrains. This of course enraged other sages who conspired for a cow to enter his granary, and caused it to die as Gowtama attempted to ward it off with a bunch of Darbha grass. Because of this misfortune Gowtama therefore worshipped Shiva, to invoke the Goddess Ganga down to his hermitage to purify the premises. Ganga came down as Godavari, and Shiva took up an abode here in the form of Tryambaka. Interestingly, locals refer to the river here as Ganga and not as Godavari.
Architecture of Temple:- The
Nagara style of architecture is what typifies this temple made of black
stone. It is enclosed in a spacious courtyard and the sanctum (internally
a square and externally a stellar structure) houses a small Shivalingam -
Tryambaka. The sanctum is crowned with a graceful tower ,a giant amalaka and
a golden kalasha. In front of the garbagriha and the antarala is a mandap
with doors on all four sides. Three out of the
four doorways are covered with porches, and the openings of these porches
are ornamented with pillars and arches. The roof of
the mandapam is formed by curvilinear slabs
rising in steps. The entire structure is ornamented
with sculptural work featuring running scrolls, floral designs, figures
of gods, yakshas, humans and animals. The Shivalingam is seen
in a depression on the floor of the sanctum with water constantly
oozing out from the top of the Shivalingam.
Usually, the Shivalingam is covered with a
silver mask, and on festive occasions with a golden
mask with five faces, each with a golden crown. The silver mask
is equivalent to the processional images seen in South Indian
temples.
Rathayatra of Trimbakeshwar - On
the full moon day of the month Kartika
, called Tripuri Paurnima, sometime in November.
Places of Interest
Shree KalaRam Mandir - This
temple was built by late Shri Odhekar, a knight serving with Peshwas.
There are great processions and utsav on Ramnavami, Dussahera
and Chaitra Padwa (Hindu new year day). The
specialty of the temple is that it was built with black stones.The stones
were brought from Ramshej 200 years ago. It took 23
lakhs of rupees and 2000 workers to build the temple in 12 years.This
temple is situated at a distance of 3 km from Central
Bus Stand.
