River · India
Godavari
The Godavari is the second-longest river in India, after the Ganges. It rises in the Western Ghats near Nashik, only about 80 km from the Arabian Sea, yet flows all the way across India to the Bay of Bengal.
Picture credit: విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె. (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Vishalnagula (CC BY-SA 4.0) · V.P.knocker (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Godavari?
The river starts here: Trimbakeshwar near Nashik in the Western Ghats, Maharashtra.
It ends in the Bay of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh.
Countries on the river: India.
The story behind it
Hindus call the Godavari ‘Dakshina Ganga’, the Ganges of the South, and see it as a holy river. In Nashik, one of the four great Kumbh Mela pilgrim festivals takes place, and every twelve years crowds gather along the banks for the Pushkaram fair. On its long way east the river squeezes through a narrow gorge in the Papi Hills. In the monsoon it can swell enormously: the Godavari has the highest flood flows in India. At Rajahmundry long bridges cross the water, and here the river splits into branches and forms a wide delta. Together with the Krishna delta it is called the ‘Rice Granary of South India’. At the coast grow the Coringa mangrove forests, home to fishing cats and golden jackals. From January to March, olive ridley sea turtles lay their eggs on a long sandbank there.
Questions children ask
How long is the Godavari?
Why is the Godavari called the Ganges of the South?
The Godavari is sacred to Hindus, just like the Ganges in the north, so it is called ‘Dakshina Ganga’, the Southern Ganges. Pilgrims visit holy places on its banks, such as Trimbak, Nashik and Bhadrachalam.
Where does the Godavari flow into the sea?
At Rajahmundry, about 80 km before the coast, the river splits into branches and forms a delta. Its two main mouths, the Gautami Godavari and the Vasishta Godavari, flow into the Bay of Bengal.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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