Trimbakeshwar Temple, Trimbak, Nashik – History

Trimbakeshwar Temple, Trimbak, Nashik – History

The present Trimbakeshwar temple was constructed by third Peshwa Balaji Bajirao (1740-1760) on the site of an old temple. It so happens that the Peshwa made a bet on whether the stone surrounding the Jyotirlinga, is hollow from the inside or not. The stone was proved to be hollow, and on losing the bet, the Peshwa built a marvelous temple out of it. The work of constructing the present temple of Trimbakeshwar was begun in 1755 in the first half of the Margashirsha month (around December) and was completed in 1786. It took 31 years to construct the temple. It took 16 lakh rupees to complete the temple. In the year 1954 the Sansthan was registered under public trust registration act.

Once this Shiva temple had the world famous Nassak Diamond on Shiva's idol. This world-famous diamond also known as the Eye of the Idol is a large, 43.38 carats (8.68 g) stone that originated as a larger diamond in the 15^th century in India. Found in the Amaragiri mine located in Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh. The diamond adorned the idol of Shiva at least from 1500 to 1817 in the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, near Nashik (hence the name Nassak), It was looted by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817- 1818) and lies with one owner or the other ever since. The diamond presently is with a wealthy American family - Edward J. Hand, a 48-year old trucking firm executive, New York for $ 500,000.