Krishna River
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The River Krishna (meaning "dark" (feminine) in Sanskrit) is one of the longest rivers of India (about 1300 km in length). It originates at Mahabaleswar in Maharashtra, passes through Sangli and meets the sea in the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi in Andhra Pradesh. It flows through the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The traditional source of the river is a spout from the mouth of a statue of a cow in the ancient temple of Mahadev in Mahabaleshwar. Legend has it that Krishna is Lord Vishnu himself as a result of a curse on the trimurtis by Savitri. Also, its tributaries Venna and Koyana are said to be Siva and Brahma themselves. An interesting thing to notice is that 4 other rivers come out from the cow (bull's) mouth apart from Krishna and they all travel some distance before merging into Krishna. The rivers are Koyana, Venna(Veni), Savitri and Gayatri.
Its most important tributary is the Tungabhadra River, which is itself formed by the Tunga and Bhadra rivers that originate in the Western Ghats. Other tributaries include the Koyna, Bhima, Mallaprabha, Ghataprabha, Yerla, Warna, Dindi, Musi and Dudhganga rivers.
Two big dams have been constructed on the river, one at Srisailam called Srisailam Dam and the other at Nagarjuna Hill. The latter, the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, is considered to be the largest earth dam in the world with a natural reservoir spanning tens of square kilometres.
Temples like Ganapati Temple of Sangli, Sangameshwar Shiva Temple at Haripur and Ramling Temple are located on the banks of river Krishna near Sangli. Out of these, Ganapati Temple of Sangli is one of the most beautiful temples of Lord Ganesha.
Popular pilgrim spots like Audumber and Narsobawadi are located on the banks of river Krishna near Sangli in Maharashtra state.More pilgrim spots especially that of Srisailam, one of the twelve jyotirlingas which also has a shrine for one of the shaktipeethasis on the river. Nagarjuna konda was a Buddhist centre under Acharya Nagarjuna and once was a centre for buddhist learning.Amaravati also a buddhist and a Hindu site dedicated to Siva was recently in February was visited by the Dalai Lama. Vijayawada on its banks has a rich and great temple on the hill of Indrakeeladri a temple of Goddess Durga.
Three tributaries meet Krishna river near Sangli. Warana river meets Krishna river near Sangli at Haripur. This spot is also known as Sangameshwar. Panchaganga river meets Krishna river at Narsobawadi near Sangli. These places are considered among the holiest in Hindu mythology. It is said that Lord Dattatraya spent some of his days at Audumber on the banks of river Krishna.
da:Krishna (flod) de:Krishna (Fluss) es:Río Krishna ja:クリシュナ川 nl:Krishna (rivier) sv:Krishnafloden ta:கிருஷ்ணா நதி te:కృష్ణా నది