Godavari Kunda

Water from the sacred Godavari Kunda (spring) collects in a pool in the inner temple courtyard before flowing via nine stone gargoyles into a stepped tank below. The Godavari spring and the river of the same name in Madras (southern India) are linked in legend by the miracle of an Indian sadhu who, having lost his precious possessions - rosary, club, pouch, tiger skin and gourd - while bathing in Madras, found them again in the Godavari Kunda. Every twelfth year when Jupiter is in the sign of Leo a mela (gathering) takes place here attended by thousands of Hindu pilgrims.