Kalaram Temple

Kalaram Temple is one of the most important Hindu shrines in Nashik and is dedicated to Rama. Its name means black Rama and comes from the dark stone image of the god in the sanctum. Tradition places the temple on the spot where Rama lived during his exile, as told in the Ramayana, which gives it a special place among the city's many sacred sites.

The temple is built wholly of black stone and rises to about 70 feet, crowned by a gilded spire. Its story begins with an earlier shrine destroyed under Muslim rule, when the image was thrown into the Godavari to save it. In the Peshwa period, Sardar Rangarao Odhekar is said to have learnt in a dream where it lay, recovered it, and had the present temple raised, a task that employed more than 2,000 workers.