The Godavari is the river that makes Rajamahendravaram a sacred city. This is India’s second longest river and the largest river in South India. The source of this river is Triambakswar in Maharashtra and it covers 1465 kilometers through different states like Maharashtra, Telengana, and Andhra Pradesh etc…

The story of the Godavari river is told in the Kotirudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana. In this account, the sage Gautama, who is a mind-born son of Brahma, is engaged in Tapasya on the Brahmagiri mountain when there is a hundred-year drought in the area and thus crops can’t grow. So for the welfare of others, he starts engaging in Tapasya to Varuna the rain god, who appears before him after six months. Varuna denies Gautama’s request for rain, because it would go against the wishes of the gods, so Gautama instead asks for “divine everlasting water yielding permanent results.” Varuna tells Gautama to dig a ditch, and then Varuna fills it with divine water.

So Gautama and other sages in the area come to the new body of water and start planting crops.But on one occasion, Gautama sends his disciples to get water, but they’re stopped by the wives of the other sages, who want to get water first. The disciples complain to Gautama’s wife Ahalya, who goes to the body of water and collects water before everyone else. The other sages are furious at this petty incident, so to get revenge they pray to Ganesha, who appears before them. The sages ask him to force Gautama to leave his hermitage; Ganesha first advises them not to try to harm someone who has only done them good, but they insist.

Then Ganesha approaches the sage Gautama, taking the form of a feeble cow, and starts eating Gautama’s crops. To shoo the cow away, Gautama throws some blades of grass at it, but as soon as the grass touches the cow he sees it fall dead. Gautama is shocked that he has committed Gohatya (cow-killing), a supreme sin in the Hindu religion, so he takes his wife and leaves the hermitage in order to undertake an arduous course of repentance that involves circumambulating the Brahmagiri mountain, going around confessing his sin to everyone he encounters, and making Lingams to worship Shiva.