The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s3.t4.4

v1.c6.s3.t4.4

The river ranks high among the sacred streams of India. The people of the south call it Gaṅgā or Gautamī Gaṅgā and regard it as equal in holiness to the Bhāgīrathī Gaṅgā that flows through Āryāvarta. A Gautamī-māhātmya forms part of the *Brahma-purāṇa* and testifies to its great sanctity. One of its sources springs from a hill behind the holy spot of Trimbak, Skt. *Tryambaka*, named after the god Śiva. It lies in the Nāsik District about fifty miles from the shore of the Arabian Sea. Here is shown the *Gomukha*, ‘cow’s mouth’, where the water drips from a lofty cliff through a stone cow’s mouth. A larger branch takes its rise in the ridge that joins the Trimbak and Brahma mountains. After passing the holy precincts of Trimbak the river cuts a deep rocky bed through the Ghāṭmātha (hill-top) country and leaps into the famous falls of Gaṅgāpur. It then flows past the sacred city of Nāsik—identified with the Pañchavaṭī of epic tradition—through a succession of masonry pools, styled *kuṇḍs*, much used in ceremonial ablutions. It receives several affluents such as the Kādravā (Kadwā) and the Pravarā before it reaches Paiṭhaṇ, ‘the royal seat’ of Pulumāyi in the second century A.D. It then runs right across the state of Hyderabad receiving on its left bank the Pūrṇā, and on the right the Māñjrā, the Vañjarā of the *Brahma* and Vañjulā of the *Matsya* and *Vāyu Purāṇas*, which forms part of the boundary line between the Marāṭha country and the land of the Telugus. Farther on it is joined by the Prānhitā which conveys the united waters of the Peṅgaṅgā, the Wardhā (Varadā), and the Waingaṅgā (Veṇvā). From this point the river takes a marked south-easterly bend dividing the ancient realm of Chakrakūṭa (Bastar) from Andhra or Teliṅgāna of which Anmakoṇḍa (Hanamkoṇḍa) was the ornament (*Andhrāvanimaṇḍana*). About thirty miles below the confluence of the Prānhitā the Godāvarī receives the Indravatī from the Bastar State. It then passes by Bhadrāchalam, sacred to the memory of the hero of the *Rāmāyaṇa*, and is next joined by the Śabarī, which probably takes its name from one of the primitive tribes mentioned as early as the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*. The river now forces its way through the Eastern Ghāṭs and, flowing past Rājahmundry (Rājamahendrapaṭṭaṇa), opens out and forms a series of broad reaches studded with low alluvial islands styled *laṅkās*. The sea is reached by seven branches¹ (*sapta-Godāvarī*) styled the Vāsisṭhī (on the west), Vaiśvāmitrī, Vāmadevī, Gautamī, Bhāradvājī, Ātreyī, and Jāmadagnī. The chief sanctity attaches to the Gautamī branch on the east.