Rivers associated with Pune
Pune has been blessed with a number of beautiful and sacred
rivers.
The Mula – Mutha are at the heart of the city, having merged just a little while before at Bopodi Khadki.
Al lot of Pune’s water comes from the Mutha, dammed at least at Khadakwasla, Varasgaon and Temghar.
Al lot of Pune’s water comes from the Mutha, dammed at least at Khadakwasla, Varasgaon and Temghar.
The Pawana
river flows beautifully through Chinchwad.
Athough now, except in the monsoon, it looks dry
at Chinchwad. It is dammed at Pawana dam, well before Chinchwad which makes
PCMC possible. On its banks at Chinchwadgoan, is the sacred Morya Gosavi
temple, from almost a millennium ago. As the story goes Morya Gosavi was a
saint and an excellent devotee of Lord Ganapati. He is also regarded as an
incarnation of Lord Ganesh as per the boon granted to him. In fact the “Morya”
associated with “Ganapati Bappa Morya” can be attributed to this saint.
The Pawana
river joins the Mula river near Aundh.
The
Indrayani river flows through Dehu and Alandi. Renowned for the Saints Tukaram
and Dyaneshwar respectively.
Sant Tukaram was
a Warkari Saint of the Bhakti movement. His abhangs – devotional songs in
Marathi – are very popular in Maharashtra even today. They reflect his deep
love and longing for Lord Vitthal of Pandharpur. Legend goes that Sant Tukaram
was forced to immerse his works in the river Indrayani, but the river goddess
returned them back to him.
Lord Vitthal
came for Sant Tukaram on Garuda, on the banks on the river Indrayani, and took
him to his abode in Vaikuntha. There is a temple at that spot that stands testimony to
the event.
Sant
Dyaneshwar, the boy saint from Alandi, was a scholar and a Yogi. He was a disciple of his elder brother
Nivruttinath who was a member of the Nath sect. Sant Dyaneshwar’s legacy to us
is the Dyaneshwari, a beautiful commentary/translation of the Bhagwad Gita into
Marathi. He completed this divine task at the tender age of 14. His parents
gave up their lives in the Indrayani at Alandi to get their children to be
accepted into the Brahmin community. Sant Dyaneshwar himself took Samadhi at
Alandi at 19 years of age, having accomplished his life's mission.
Chinchwad,
Dehu and Alandi, not more than 20 kms from each other form a very important
triangle of Maharashtrian and Indian pilgrimage.
Others
rivers around Pune are the Ghod and the Bhima.
The Bhima
river is an important river of Maharashtra. It originates at Bhimashankar, not
far from Pune. Bhimashakar is a serene and beautiful forest. It is home to the
rare flying squirrel, locally known as “Shekaru”. It is also the site of the
Bhimashankar temple. A very important site of Hindu worship, it is one of the
twelve jyotirlingas. Lord Shiva defeated the tyrant asura Bhima here. After
which he agreed to his devotees’ demands to take up residence in the pristine
forest in the form of a Shivalinga. The sweat from Lord Shiva’s body from the
effort of the war is said to be the origin of the Bhima river.
The Bhima
river flows towards Solapur. Before Solapur it is dammed at the Yashwant Sagar,
which caters to most of Solapur’s water requirements. In Solapur district we
come to Pandharpur. The abode of Lord Vitthal, and the destination of all
Warkaris. Situated on the banks of the Bhima river. Here known as Chandrabhaga.
History
views Pundalik as the founder of the Warkari sect. In the more romantic version
Pundalik was looking after his aged parents. Lord Vishnu was so pleased with
his devotee that he appeared to Pundalik. Since Pundalik was busy with his
parents he threw the Lord a brick and asked him to wait on it. (Brick is “Vit”
in Marathi. Vithal is One situated on a brick).
In his
famous abhang Tukaram says that Pandharpur is his Maher, his mother’s home, his
home-town. Vithal is his Mother, Vithal-Rakumai are his father and mother,
Pundalik is his brother and Chandrabhaga is his sister.
The Bhima
flows southwards and merges into the Krishna river at the boundary of Karnataka
and Telangana near Raichur.
The Krishna
river is one of the principal rivers of India. It is therefore considered in the
river inter-linking project. Two links are proposed with the Krishna river.
Krishna-Godavari to the north, a 300 km link at an estimated cost of 4.4 bn $
in 2003. The Krishna-Pennar link to the south, a proposed 600 km link.
The Krishna
river that the Bhima flows into is the third longest river in India, after the
Ganga and the Godavari, at 1300 kms. It flows through four states –
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and is of great importance
to all of them. Incidentally the Krishna river originates a couple of hours
drive away from Pune, in Mahabaleshwar, in Satara district, a weekend getaway
hill-station from Pune.
The Mallikarjuna temple is one of the 12
jyortirlingas too. It is the place where Shiva and Parvati stayed when they
came to pacify Lord Kartikeya after he lost the race to Lord Ganesh, in which Lord Ganesh circumambulated his parents.
It is doubly important as a Shakthi
Maha-Peeth where Devi Sati’s lip is supposed to have fallen.
The Krishna river is again further dammed
at Nagarjuna Sagar dam. It is one of the “temples of modern India” and one of
the earliest dams in a series that brought about the Green Revolution in India, aimed to make India self-sufficient in agricultural produce. The
large Nagarjuna Sagar dam, situated at the boundary of Telangana and Andhra is
responsible for the prosperity that attends the surrounding region.
The Krishna river ends its journey in the
Bay of Bengal.
Since we mentioned the river Godavari a
couple of times, we could take a moment to note that it originates in Nasik,
again not far from Pune, about 150-200 kms away. It is the second longest river
in India, almost 1500 km long, and is an extremely important river. It too ends
in the Bay of Bengal.
It is a very important river for India.
The Godavari River has its catchment area
in six states of India: Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha. The number of dams constructed in
Godavari basin is the highest among all the river basins in India. Nearly 350
major / medium dams and barrages were constructed in the river basin as of the year
2012.
The Godavari River has a drainage area of
312,812 km2 (120,777 sq mi), which is nearly one-tenth of the area of India
and is greater than the areas of England and Ireland put together.
The river is so important that there are
districts named after it – the East Godavari district and the West Godavari
district!
Tryambakeshwar is a very sacred spot for
Hindus, where the Godavari river originates in Nasik. It is also one of the
twelve Jyotirlingas.
The story is reproduced as is from
Wikipedia:
Brahmadev worshipped God Trivikram when he came to Satya Loka (on earth) with the same holy
However, Ganges was not prepared to part with Lord Shiva, which irritated him. He made TandavNrutya (dance) on the peak of Brahmagiri and dashed his jata there. Frightened by this action, Ganges appeared on Brahmagiri. Later on Ganges appeared in the Trimbak Tirtha. Gautama praised her but she off and on appeared on the mountain at various places and disappeared in anger. Gautama could not bathe in her waters. Ganges then appeared in Gangadwar, Varaha-tirtha, Rama-Laxman tirtha, Ganga Sagar tirtha. Still Gautama could not bathe in her waters. Then Gautama surrounded the river with enchanted grass and put a vow to her. The flow stopped there and the tirtha thus came to be called Kushavarta. It is from this Kushavarta that the river Godavari flows up to the sea. The sin of killing a cow by Gautama was wiped off here.
Hope you enjoyed the river trip from
Chinchwad, Pune to the Bay of Bengal and
back, as much as I enjoyed writing it.
References:
Google Maps
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