A working bathing ghat
Godavari
Ram Kund, Nashik, Maharashtra
Gautami, the river a sage brought down
The kund at Panchavati where Nashik gives its dead to the water.
- River
- Godavari
- Ghat
- Ram Kund
- Place
- Nashik, Maharashtra
- Form of the water
- A working bathing ghat
- Also called
- Gautami, the name used in invocation
- Local time
- Asia/Kolkata
Before you choose this water
Ram Kund is where Nashik's families come to give their dead to the water. Asthi visarjan goes on there through the day, every day of the year. It is a place with grief standing in it, and this page describes the kund rather than showing it.
The place
The Godavari rises at Brahmagiri, above Trimbakeshwar, a short way upstream of Nashik. Its older name is Gautami, from the sage Gautama. The account is that he brought the river down through Shiva's intercession, in expiation of a cow's death, and Gautami is still the name used when the river is invoked.
Ram Kund lies in Panchavati, the quarter of Nashik associated with Rama's years in exile. Tradition holds that Rama and Sita bathed at this kund, and that Rama performed his father Dasharatha's shraddha here. That is why Ram Kund is Nashik's asthi visarjan tirth: ashes are given to the water, and the kund is held to receive them.
In daily practice this is a place of pitru karya before anything else. Shraddha and tarpan go on here through the year, and heavily through Pitru Paksha. Nashik also holds the Simhastha, the Kumbh of this river, at the twelve-year turn when Jupiter enters Simha, shared with Trimbakeshwar upstream.
From Brahmagiri the Godavari runs east across the whole peninsula to the Bay of Bengal, and it is the longest river of southern India. What passes Ram Kund is a young river only a few tens of kilometres old, and a managed one. The Gangapur dam stands upstream of the city, so through the dry months the flow at the kund is largely what is let down from it. A heavy monsoon week can put the steps themselves under water.
Where the figures come from
One number, taken the same way at all six waters.
The cell this site reads for Nashik sits on the Godavari main stem below Ram Kund. The Godavari is a small river here and a quick one. A wet week can carry it far above what that week usually brings, and an April reading sits near the bottom of its own record. The figure is modelled discharge, ranked against 1997 to 2025 for this same week, which is why a number in the low hundreds can mean spate here and very little on the Ganga.
Where the figures come from
Flow is modelled river discharge from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service global flood model, read at the grid cell covering this reach and published once a day. It is a model rather than a gauge reading, and this site writes modelled beside every number it prints.
Each value is ranked against every daily value that same cell has produced in this same week of the year from 1997 to 2025. That is what the percentile means: one water compared with its own past.
Sunrise, sunset, air temperature and rainfall are read at the ghat's own coordinates rather than at the grid cell. The muhurat windows are the panchang's rules worked out from that sunrise.
Every figure comes from a public source named beside it, and each can be checked against that source.
Attribution
- River discharge: Copernicus Emergency Management Service, GloFAS, served by Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
- Sun and weather: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
What you find here
The same four things at every water on this site.
- The river's flowModelled discharge for this reach, in cubic metres a second, ranked against 1997 to 2025 for this same week of the year.
- The sunriseSunrise and sunset at this ghat's own coordinates, which is why they differ from every other ghat's.
- The muhurat windowsBrahma, pratah, abhijit and godhuli, worked out from that sunrise rather than copied from a national table.
- The snanThree minutes with this water at the state it is in, at an hour the panchang names, with your own sankalp in your own words.
What this water is kept for
What people do when they stand at this water. Some of it is centuries older than any of the words on this site.
Asthi visarjan
What Ram Kund is above all else. The ashes are given to the kund by the family, standing at the water.
Done by the person at the water
Shraddha and tarpan
The rite this kund is best known for, kept through the year and heavily through Pitru Paksha. Eligibility varies by community and by region, and a family with a purohit follows his ruling.
Done by the person at the water
The dip at the kund
Taken at the kund steps, which are cut into stone and hold water even when the river runs low.
Done by the person at the water
Godavari puja
Offered to the river under its invoked name, Gautami, the name the older texts of this place use.
Done by the person at the water
The Simhastha
The Kumbh of this river, kept at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar together at the twelve-year turn, and run by the akhadas with the mela and district administrations.
Kept by the place itself
Days this ghat is known for
Each is reckoned by tithi or by the sun, as noted beside it. Dates are not printed yet: the parva day depends on a panchang, and the site has still to choose the one it will follow.
Timing to be confirmed against the panchang
Pitru Paksha
A fortnight, not a day. Each ancestor is kept on the tithi of their passing.
The dark fortnight of Bhadrapada-Ashvin
Sarva Pitru Amavasya
The day kept for ancestors whose tithi is not known.
Amavasya closing Pitru Paksha
Ram Navami
Kept in Panchavati with particular attention, since this is Rama's quarter of the city.
Navami of the bright half of Chaitra
Simhastha
Shared with Trimbakeshwar upstream. Access is settled months ahead.
At the twelve-year turn, when Jupiter enters Simha
Who looks after this water
Ram Kund and the Godavari ghats at Nashik are under the Nashik Municipal Corporation, with the district administration taking charge at Simhastha. Local tirth-purohit families hold the customary right to officiate for pilgrims here.