nasikthe holi district

nASIK - THE BEGINING OF THE TRANSITION...

Nasik, has always been known to have a person-ality of its own - the simple reason for this being the roots that have only grown deeper and firm-er, in the last few years, be it culturally, socially, mythologically and so on.

Situated on the Godavari River, Nasik is a hotspot for pilgrimage tourism and visited by thousands and thousands of hindu devotees every year.

Nashik is surrounded by nine hills, namely: Dur-ga, Ganesh, Chitraghanta, Pandav, DingerAli, Mhasarul, Jogwada, Pathanpura and Konkani. This beautiful city with hills surrounding it has lakes, adding to its beauty.

This colourful story takes you through Nashik, it’s mythology, its politics, industries and all their modern day applications!

Mythology and NasikThe Ancient Period

The city is said to have existed even during the times of Lord Rama, for he is said to have carried out a large period of his exile with Sita and Lax-man in Nasik. Laxman even cut the nose (nasika in sanskrit) of a demon - Shurpanakha, and hence the city got its name, Nasik.

Not only this, it is said even Lord Vishnu had de-feated three demons here, so the city is also known as Tri - Kantak.

Even the great Brahmadeva was said to have med-itated here for a few years in Padmasana, and hence the city was even called Padma - Aasna for a few years.

The Medieval Period

Not only the great Gods found Nashik attrac-tive! In the recent past, the Moguls were fasci-nated by the beauty of the city and renamed it as “Gulshanabad” meaning the city of gardens. Beautiful fresh flowers were sent to Aurangazeb from Gulshanabad i .e . Nashik. It was during the rule of the Peshwas that the city was actually given the name Nashik.

Nashik was the home of Emperor Akbar, and also known as the land of the brave, during Chatra-pati Shivaji’s Regime.

Time passed, and then the British came to our nation . They too, like all the others, fell in love with Nashik, and cared for it. They built the golf course, which was then the largest in Asia, and made sure the flora, fauna and industries of the district remained and if possible, improved.

Modern Day - The Field trip!

We visited alot of places, primarily temples, where we saw all of the above actually.

Trimbakeshwar Temple

This temple is home to one one of the twelve ‘jyotirlingas’ pre-sent in India.

It is said if you visit this tem-ple, you attain salvation .

“There is no sacred place like Tryambakeshwar, no river like Godavari , no mountain like Brahmagiri etc. The reasons for its being so sacred are - Go-davari river originates in this place, the birth place of Lord Ganesha, a place of the first Nath of Nath Sampradaya con-sisting of Gorakhnath and oth-ers, a place where Nivrittinath was made to imbibe the holy knowledge by his Guru Gahi-ninath .”

As seen , a mix of cultures are present at this place, making it so holy.

Shree Someshwar Temple

One among the old-est temples dedicated to Lord Mahadeva, the So-meshwar temple is situ-ated on the banks of the sacred river Godavari . Besides Shiva, the temple is also the abode of Lord Hanuman .

The temple is surrounded by all around greenery, which provides an idyl-lic ambience to this pretty shrine. Also, the river beds here are ideal for swimming and boating.

We also visted :

The Balaji Temple The Buddha Stupa

Panchvati

Considered as the most holy spot, Panchavati is believed to be a shel-ter to Lord Ram, Lakshman , and Sita during their exile . It is situated on the northern banks of the Goda-vari .

This sacred spot gets its name from the five banyan trees that stand by the riverside. Since this place ac-quired a prominent place in the epic, people frequent here to take a holy dip so that they will be cleansed from their sins.

Naroshankar Temple at Panchvati Sita Gunfa at Panchvati

Ramkund at Panchvati

Idol of Lord

Maruti at

Panchvati - has

two faces in ei-

ther sides!

My internpretation of Panchvati

I made a graphic interpretation of Panchvati , the sights and scenes affected me so much .This piece, I’ll call it the Sinking Sadhu - for all the sins he is going to committ even after taking a dip in this holy Godavari .

Muktidham

Muktidham tem-ple is situated in Na-shik Road. Built by Late Shri JayramBhai Bytco, is magnificient peice of architucture, made with marble from Makran in Rajastan , and by Rajastani sclup-tors. Unique to this tem-ple are eighteen chap-ters of Geeta written on the walls. You can also see the replicas of all the twelve Jyotirlingas over here and also icons of all major Hindu Gods and Godesses. After vis-iting this temple one gets a feeling of visiting all the four Dhams in India.

Pandu Leni Caves

A cluster of Hinayana Buddhist rock cut caves dating from around the 1st century BC Pan-davleni caves, are lo-cated on the Trivash-mi hills. Remarkably carved doorways and brilliant sculptures are the main characteristics of Pandavleni caves.Out of the 24 caves, 3, 10, 18 caves are re-ally worth mentioning for their outstanding sculptures. The caves houses icons of Bud-dha, Jain Teerthanka-ra, etc.The interiors of the caves were popular meeting places for the disciples.

nasik and politicsThe Freedom stuggle against the British in Nasik was initiated by the great, Tantya Tope, through the Great Uprising of 1857.

Wanting to be free of the British Rule, on 21st December 1909. Anant Kanhere shot the collector Jackson in Vijayanand theater. The people involved in the inci-dence, Anant LaxmanKanhere, Krishnaji Gopal Karve and Vinay-ak Ramchandra Deshpande were sentenced to death, however the struggle for freedom continued in Nasik.

The embers of revolution flared , in those days, and many more joined the revolutionary band-wagon. Some others were Vinayak Narayan Desh-pande, Shankar Ramchandra Soman,Waman Daji Narayan Joshi, Ganesh Vaidya, Dattatraya Pan-durang Joshi and so on.

Perhaps the most interesting is the case of Vinay-ak Damodar Savarkar, who was a student at the Fergusson College, Pune, and from there he was influenced to participate in the freedom Move-ment.

Modern Day Application - The Field Trip!

The Coin Museum

The Indian Institute of Research in Numismat-ic Studies Established in 1980 & located in the scenic surroundings of Anjneri Hill is one of its kinds in Asia. Extensive archive of Indian Cur-rency, photographs, articles, line drawings, rep-licas & a well-documented researched history of Indian currency that existed in India down the Centuries makes Coin Museum a place worth to visit. The institute has also preserved One Lac cardexes for easy reference . It has become the global destination for tourist for study & re-search . The Institute undertakes workshops to promote coin collections in India.

This is a fne way of witnessing royalty through the ages, in our nation , since the most ancient times!

nasik and its social structure

Nasik contains a large number of agricultural and industrial workers, due to those two being the most practised proffessions.

The cuisine and the language, both are mainly Marathi .

Nasik is also a Polotical hub, with lots of political parties having their base here .

The famous Fairs and Festivals of Nasik are:

KUMB MELA is the most important Hindu spir-itual gathering in India that comes once every three years, rotating between four major Hindu pilgrim centers of India - Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. It ’s held at the Trimbakeshwar Temple .

Other popular and widely celebrated festivals are Makar Sankranti , Gudi Padwa, Diwali (due to the rich history of Ram, Laxman and Sita) and Rath Yatra (a part of the Janmaotsav Festival , where a rath yatra is taken throughout Nasik on the second day).

Some Photos..

Kumbhmelaat Nasik - 2007

A Janmaotsav Procession atNasik.

Local Men

Agricultural and industrial Nasik

Agriculture in Nasik

Bajra is important crop of the District. However other crops like wheat, paddy and other cere-als are also grown in various parts of the District. Paddy is mainly grown in Tribal belt. Vegeta-bles and Onion were main cash crops for last 30 years. Because of variety of vegetables and its sup-ply to Mumbai , the District was known as Back-yard of Mumbai . After establishment of sugar factories, Sugarcane has acquired important po-sition in the agriculture economy of the District. Economic development in the rural area speed started only after establishment of sugar factories. Since last 20 years the grape has acquired domi-nance on the agricultural economy of District. Due to water shortage, farmers have shifted from Sugar to Permogranate .

The district has been identified for the purpose of establishment of Wine Park and Food Park.

Industries in Nasik

Since last decade, industrial development has picked up the speed, particularly after declara-tion of a five-star mega industrial estate . There are 174 medium and large industrial units em-ploying 75,834 people . Many reputed and large companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, MICO, Siemens, Crompton Greaves, Kirloskar, Reymond steel , Jindal , Brook Bond, L & T, Ceat, VIP, Car-bon Everflow, Garware, Jyoti Structures, Sam-sonite, Datar Switch Gears, Glaxo India etc. have established their units in the District. Prestigious project IDEM of Mahindra & Mahindra is estab-lished in Nashik very recently. Some of the im-portant Public Sector establishments like India Security Press, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Cur-rency Note Press and Thermal Power Station etc. are also located in the District. These industries have brought the District on the National & In-ternational map. In addition to these industries the District also has national level institutes like (I) Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Institute of Rural Technology & Training run by KVIC and (ii) In-dian Institute of Numismatic Studies & Research at Trimbakeshwar.

In remote areas tribals are engaged in Carpet weaving. Export quality carpets are prepared here .

Nashik has also witnessed electronic develop-ment in the recent times, with a software Tech-nology Park (STP) being established.

Modern Day Application - The Sula Vineyards!

A classic mix of watching Nasik agriculture at its best, and of the Food and Beverage Industry of Nasik, is the Sula Vineyard.

From its formation in the year 1997, Sula has managed to complement itself with the reputation of India’s best wineries. It is a synonym of Indian wines.

One among the significant feature of these winer-ies is the tasting room, which covers a total area of 2000 square feet. Besides offering the tasty wines, this room shows off a balcony from where one can get the panoramic view of the undulating vine-yards bounded in a pretty abbience .

Our entire Marketing Communications Batch was allowed the Wine Tasting facility, and we thor-oughly enjoyed knowing, learning AND tasting the most popular Sula wines in the country, i .e , the Chenin Sauvignon (White Wine), Rose Brut (Pink Wine) and the Satari Malbec Merltot (Red Wine).

Modern Day Application - The Gargoti Museum!

Another fast gaining footing in and around Nasik is full fledged mining. The Gargoti Museum or the Mineral Museum, contains a collection of all the precious and semi - precious stones that have been collected accidently through the mining.

Not very easily found, these are found 10ft deep under the Earth . Also contain stones from Jal-gaon , Pune, etc. Moreover, stones from overseas, such as the Marks Rock and the Moon Rock from Sultanate of Oman , are also found here .

Various Rockcollections from

Nasik and Maha-rahtra.

education in nasikNasik has been the educational hub of North Ma-harashtra in the last few years.

It has two state run universites, and many more private institutes (ranging from Medical Sciences to Arts to Commerce).

Moreover, the well known Symbiosis has an in-stitute there, which taps the current needs, the Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management.It is the P.G. Campus.

Overall , the city is on its way to development, and fully justifies the place it holds in the hearts of Maharashtrians.

thank you!