The Godavari’s sacred economy in Panchavati and the road to Nashik’s Simhastha 2026

The banks of the River Godavari at Panchavati in Nashik look, at first glance, like a purely sacred landscape: stone ghats cascading into the greenish water at Ramkund, temple spires crowding the skyline, and a steady choreography of pilgrims bathing, praying, and performing rituals. But woven through this spiritual scene is an equally powerful, if less visible, story – that of a dense, everyday micro-economy that survives because the river continues to draw faith and footsteps.

The sacred marketplace: Inside Panchavati’s economy of rituals and river-based livelihoods

The vibrant religious activity around the Godavari's banks at Panchavati is the engine of a robust local economy that sustains countless local vendors and service providers. Their livelihoods are intrinsically linked to the steady stream of pilgrims and tourists. Small-scale vendors line the ghats, selling essential puja items (prayer materials) like flowers, incense, coconuts, and brightly coloured puja thalis, as well as religious texts and small idols. 

Professional priests (pujaris) and ritual specialists offer their services to perform complex rites, particularly for the immersion of ashes in the sacred Ramkund, a service that is central to the area's religious significance. Their work is especially centred on funerary rituals and the immersion of ashes—considered profoundly meritorious at this site, known in local belief as Asthi Vilaya Tirtha – the place where the ashes of the dead dissolve,  and where the departed attain symbolic dissolution and peace. These priests maintain detailed ledgers of returning families, often serving generations of the same lineage, and their services range from simple pujas to elaborate shraddha ceremonies requiring precise knowledge of Sanskrit mantras, ritual codes, lunar calendars, and customary procedures. 

Many collaborate with local pandit associations or travel agents who facilitate bookings for outstation pilgrims, enabling seamless ritual experiences. Their earnings vary with the complexity of the rites, the auspiciousness of the day, the volume of visitors, seasonal pilgrimage cycles, and the reputation a priest has cultivated over years—sometimes decades—of service. In this way, spiritual authority becomes a specialised profession, where ritual expertise and social trust combine to sustain both religious continuity and an essential layer of Panchavati’s micro-economy 

Panchavati’s religious significance is rooted in the Ramayana. Local belief holds that this is where Lord Rama spent part of his exile and where he is said to have bathed and performed his father’s last rites. “Ramkund, the rectangular tank built along the Godavari in the late 17th century and later renovated by Maratha patrons, is considered the holiest spot in Nashik,” says Bina, a vendor.  

Along the ghats, rows of small vendors form an informal marketplace that mirrors the rhythm of worship. Women and men sell flowers, marigold garlands, betel leaves, kumkum, incense sticks and coconuts – the basic ingredients of a puja. Others offer readymade puja thalis arranged on steel plates or leaf bowls, along with religious calendars, prayer books, copies of the Ramayana and small images of Rama, Sita and Hanuman. Many of these enterprises are family-run, with work divided between sourcing materials from wholesale markets, assembling offerings at home, and manning stalls at the ghat. Studies on religious tourism in Nashik note that such micro-enterprises account for a significant share of local employment in and around Panchavati, even if most of it remains informal and unrecorded.  

Beyond the strictly religious trades is a wider ring of livelihoods that depend on the footfall at the ghats. Narrow lanes leading into Panchavati are crowded with tea stalls, snack vendors selling poha, vada pav and bhaji, fruit sellers, paan shops and small general stores. For many pilgrims and tourists, these are the first points of contact with the city’s informal service sector – places to grab a quick breakfast after a night bus, buy mobile recharge, or stock up on basic medicines. Hotels, budget lodges and dharamshalas – many run by caste or community trusts – offer low-cost accommodation tailored to religious travellers. According to tourism analyses for the district, such small establishments, rather than large branded hotels, account for the bulk of the beds catering to pilgrims in Nashik’s core religious areas. The area also supports numerous small guesthouses and dharamshalas that provide accommodation, all drawing their income directly from the cultural and spiritual tourism hub created by the river.

Mobility is another key part of this micro-economy. The sacred geography of Nashik is spread out: pilgrims may visit Trimbakeshwar, Tapovan, Sita Gufa and other temples in addition to Ramkund and the Panchavati ghats. Auto-rickshaw drivers, taxi operators and e-rickshaw owners knit these sites together. Their earnings rise with the number of visitors, and many offer informal “darshan circuits” – fixed-price tours of multiple temples and ghats in a single day. In that sense, the Godavari functions as the anchor not only of ritual life, but of local transport demand, influencing how vehicles, drivers and routes are distributed across the city. 

This everyday economy intensifies dramatically during large religious gatherings, especially the Simhastha Kumbh Mela, which Nashik and Trimbakeshwar host roughly every 12 years. Ramkund and the Godavari ghats form one of the focal points for the festival’s mass bathing rituals. Although most macro-economic estimates come from Prayagraj and Haridwar, recent studies on Kumbh Melas consistently show huge boosts in local income, employment and government investment during these events, with billions of dollars generated in direct and indirect economic activity across host cities.

Economic outlook for Nashik’s Simhastha Kumbh Mela 2026: Lessons from Kumbhonomics 2025

As Nashik prepares to host the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in 2026, the city stands at the threshold of a massive economic transformation. For Nashik, projections for the forthcoming 2026–28 Simhastha suggest a sharp expansion in demand for rooms, food services, retail, transport and temporary infrastructure around the riverfront. 

While Nashik’s footfall may be lower due to spatial constraints, its economic sectors—transport, food, accommodation, retail, rituals, and telecom—are poised for unprecedented expansion. If Nashik receives even one-quarter of Prayagraj’s visitor volumes, the economic impact could still run into several hundred thousand crores. One of the strongest indicators of economic activity in the study is night-time luminosity, which doubled in Prayagraj during the Mela period,period as per Kumbhonomics 2025.

For Nashik, similar illumination spikes can be expected around Ramkund, Tapovan, Panchavati, and Trimbakeshwar as temporary settlements, security installations, commercial corridors, and festival lighting intensify. This proxy underscores how Kumbh gatherings convert religious spaces into temporary mega-economies.

The transport sector, which absorbed nearly half of Prayagraj’s direct consumption expenditure (INR 370 billion), will likely be Nashik’s most stressed bottleneck. With the city already a major highway junction and pilgrimage hub, authorities may need to replicate strategies such as additional train services, extended bus fleets, managed parking zones, and last-mile auto-rickshaw corridors. The 2025 experience—where over 17,000 trains and 11,500 buses were mobilised—suggests the scale of preparedness Nashik must aspire to.

The retail and food sectors, which together generated over INR 135 billion in Prayagraj, will find major opportunities across Nashik’s river ghats. Panchavati’s existing ecosystem of vendors—selling flowers, idols, puja items, and food—already thrives on daily pilgrimage. During the Simhastha, this micro-economy will expand dramatically. Tea vendors in Prayagraj earned up to INR 30,000 per day, and similar surges are likely in Nashik, where riverbank retail is deeply interwoven with ritual rhythms.

Accommodation pressures will be immense. Prayagraj’s tent city alone housed over 160,000 tents across budget to ultra-luxury categories. Nashik, with its comparatively smaller hotel stock, will likely see a huge rise in informal homestays and temporary dharamshalas. This aligns with Nashik’s long-standing tradition of community trust–run lodges serving pilgrims.

Capital expenditure is another major dimension. In Prayagraj, state and central governments invested INR 75 billion in roads, sanitation, and embankment strengthening. Nashik has already begun riverfront redevelopment at the Godavari, including ghat upgrades and heritage-path construction. The study suggests that such investments leave long-term urban legacies, enhancing connectivity and public amenities well beyond the festival.

Overall, the Kumbhonomics 2025 findings show that Kumbh Melas function as short-term urban economies with long-term infrastructural imprint. For Nashik, Simhastha 2026 will not only be a moment of spiritual convergence but also a catalyst for transformative economic growth across sectors—transport, hospitality, retail, food services, and religious micro-enterprises—all anchored around the enduring sacred presence of the Godavari.

Public authorities recognise this link between spirituality and livelihoods, and current planning around the Godavari reflects that. The Nashik Municipal Corporation and the Kumbh Mela Development Authority are investing in new ghats, safer bathing ponds and wider heritage walkways such as the proposed Ram Kal Path from Sita Gufa to Ramkund. 

At the same time, older structures like the Vastrantar Griha changing facility are being demolished on safety grounds ahead of the expected surge in pilgrims. These interventions aim to manage enormous crowds while preserving the area’s sacred character – a delicate balance, since poorly designed redevelopment can displace long-established vendors and residents who are among the main economic beneficiaries of pilgrimage.

Academic work on religious tourism in Nashik points to both opportunities and risks in this evolving landscape. On one hand, pilgrimage-driven commerce has boosted household incomes, expanded women’s participation in petty trade, and diversified the local employment base beyond agriculture and formal industry. On the other, there are concerns about congestion, solid waste piling up along the river, pressure on water quality, and the marginalisation of smaller vendors when formalised markets and beautification projects are introduced. 

These tensions echo wider debates about “Kumbhonomics” – the idea that mega religious festivals can be engines of growth, but only if benefits are shared broadly and environmental costs are managed. For the people who earn their living at Panchavati, however, the calculus is immediate and concrete. A day of heavy rain that keeps pilgrims away means unsold garlands and fewer ritual bookings. A major festival or auspicious date can double or triple earnings. 

The ecological crisis reshaping Panchavati’s economy

When the Godavari runs low or is visibly polluted, some visitors hesitate to bathe, affecting both ritual activity and the associated trade. The ecological condition of the Godavari at Panchavati has become a defining force shaping the stability of the riverfront economy, and its declining health carries both immediate and long-term consequences for the communities that depend on it. A study of Nashik from 2024 indicates “that Ram kund has the highest Total Dissolved Solids of 213 mg/L and the highest Chemical Oxygen Demand of 14 mg/L among the four sampling stations. The most likely source for these slightly elevated values is localized anthropogenic activity—meaning human influence. Ramkund is susceptible to inputs from sources such as: a) run-off containing detergents and organic matter (which increase COD) from bathing, washing clothes, or nearby sewage overflows; and b) cultural and religious practices involving the immersion of materials (like flowers or idols) which slowly dissolve, increasing the overall mineral content (TDS). The consistently good Dissolved Oxygen and low Turbidity, however, suggest that these inputs are currently minor and localized, not indicative of major, widespread pollution in the main body of water.

Over the past decade, fluctuating water levels—exacerbated by erratic monsoon patterns, upstream withdrawals, and siltation—have periodically reduced the river to shallow, sluggish stretches during the dry months. Low flows not only diminish the aesthetic and spiritual appeal of the ghats but also concentrate pollutants, making the water visibly murky and further discouraging ritual bathing. For a sacred landscape built around the healing, cleansing, and life-affirming associations of a river, such deterioration weakens the very premise on which pilgrimage is sustained.

Pollution intensifies this fragility. Untreated sewage from upstream settlements, solid waste from local markets, immersion debris from festivals, and occasional industrial effluent loads contribute to declining water quality. When foul odours or algal blooms appear, they alter the ritual atmosphere of the ghats and can trigger abrupt drops in daily footfall. Vendors selling flowers, prasad, and puja items report that on days when the water appears dirty, pilgrims spend less time at the river, purchase fewer offerings, and avoid elaborate ceremonies. Similarly, priests who rely on performing rites in or beside the water face cancellations or requests to modify rituals, which directly affects their earnings. In this sense, ecological degradation translates into a subtle but chronic economic disruption, particularly for those whose livelihoods are most precarious.

“I’ve been driving here for fifteen years. The river decides our fate. On festival days, when pilgrims come in thousands, we earn enough to manage for weeks. But if the river smells or runs low, the pilgrims don’t bathe, and half our business disappears. People think only priests depend on the Godavari. But ask any driver here—the river is our biggest employer. If it stays alive, we stay alive,” says Laxman Patil, who drives a cab in the city.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the Godavari in Nashik is a multi-use river, expected to simultaneously sustain urban demands, cultural traditions, and ecological functions. Encroachments along the floodplain, unregulated construction of retaining walls, and excessive concretisation of the riverfront have reduced natural filtration zones and eroded the river’s ability to recover after periods of heavy use. Climate change adds a deeper structural challenge: rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns reduce seasonal flows, making the river more vulnerable to stagnation and contamination. As Simhastha 2026 approaches—which will bring millions of additional visitors—the pressure on the river’s carrying capacity is set to intensify, raising concerns about whether current rehabilitation efforts will be sufficient.

Because the livelihoods of priests, vendors, boatmen, transport operators, and small accommodation providers depend on sustained pilgrim confidence, ecological instability creates an atmosphere of economic uncertainty. Clean-up drives, desilting efforts, sewage interception projects, and riverbank restoration therefore acquire a dual significance: they are interventions to revive a stressed river, but they are also investments in economic resilience. Ensuring uninterrupted flows of clean water strengthens the credibility of Panchavati as a sacred site and stabilises the rhythm of daily commerce, festival-related income, and long-term tourism potential. In this way, protecting the Godavari is not simply an environmental obligation—it is a foundational economic strategy for safeguarding the intricate web of livelihoods woven around its sacred currents.

More than a sacred river: The human economy flowing through Panchavati

Seen in this light, Panchavati’s bustling riverfront is more than a spiritual postcard. It is a living illustration of how faith, place and work intersect in contemporary India. The lamps floated on the Godavari at dusk, the murmur of mantras at Ramkund, the clink of tea glasses in alleyway stalls, and the calls of vendors selling flowers and prasad are all part of the same economic and cultural fabric. “People come here to touch the river, pray by it, and take blessings home. That spiritual journey keeps our hotel alive. If the river loses its visitors, what are we left with?” says Alok Kumar (name changed) a hotel manager at Nashik.  

The recent study “Unveiling economic impact of religious tourism in Nashik district: A factor analysis approach” assessed the economic impact of religious tourism in Nashik through factor analysis and multiple regression, revealing that while pilgrimage activity stimulates local economic indicators, its ability to translate into measurable GDP gains depends strongly on how well tourism stakeholders are integrated into the financial system. Access to affordable credit, formal financial services, and capital plays a crucial role in turning tourism-driven footfall into sustained economic growth. To strengthen this linkage, the study recommends expanding financial access for small tourism enterprises through dedicated credit lines, low-interest loans, and microfinance support. Improving transport, sanitation, and public amenities around religious sites is also essential to maximise economic spillover effects. Encouraging local entrepreneurship through skill development and incubation programmes can further diversify tourism-linked livelihoods. The study also emphasises the need to scale up digital payment systems at pilgrimage sites to enhance transparency and bring more activities into the formal economy. Finally, it calls for an integrated district-level tourism plan that balances economic expansion with environmental and cultural sustainability.

“We depend on the Godavari for visitors, but better air connectivity will bring even bigger crowds. Every new flight is like opening another road of opportunity for drivers like us,” adds Laxman Patil. As Nashik prepares for another cycle of Simhastha and continues to remake its riverfront through new roads, structures and regulations, recognising and safeguarding this intricate micro-economy will be central to ensuring that the Godavari remains not just a sacred river in mythology, but a source of sustenance for the people who live by its banks today.

 The full album of photos is available at IWP Flickr here