Crounched in the shadow of the Western Ghats, 10 km west of Nasik, Trimbak- literally "Three-Eyed" in Marathi, another name for Lord Shiva - is yet another place of great significance for Hindus. This was the exact spot where one of the four infamous drops of immortality- giving amrit-nectar fell to earth from the kumbh vessel during the struggle between Vishnu's vehicle Garuda and the Demons - the mythological origin of the Kumbh Mela.

Trimbak is also near the source of one of the India's longest and most sacred rivers, the Godavari; the spring can be reached via an ancient pilgrim-trail that cuts through a cleft in an awesome, guano-splashed cliff face. Numbering among India's most sacred centres for Shiva worship (it houses one of the twelve "self-born" jyotirlinga). Its impressive eighteenth-century shikhara, however, can also be glimpsed from the back streets nearby.