Godavari River
Godavari River, sacred river of central and southeastern India. One of the longest rivers in India, its total length is about 910 miles (1,465 km), and it has a drainage basin of some 121,000 square miles (313,000 square km).
The Godavari River rises in northwestern Maharashtra state in the Western Ghats range, only about 50 miles (80 km) from the Arabian Sea, and flows for most of its course generally eastward across the broad plateau of the Deccan (peninsular India). After traversing central Maharashtra it enters northern Telangana state northwest of Nizamabad and continues through a broad valley and forms a short stretch of Telangana’s northeastern border with Maharashtra. The river then turns southeastward for the last 200 miles (320 km) of its course, flowing through a gap in the Eastern Ghats ranges and then across Andhra Pradesh state before reaching the Bay of Bengal. There it empties via its two mouths: the Gautami Godavari to the north and the Vasishta Godavari to the south.
From its source to the Eastern Ghats, the Godavari River flows through gentle, somewhat monotonous terrain, along the way receiving the Darna, Purna, Manjra, Pranhita, and Indravati rivers. Upon entering the Eastern Ghats region, however, the river flows between steep and precipitous banks, its width contracting until it flows through a deep cleft only 600 feet (180 metres) wide, known as the Gorge. On either side wooded hills rise almost vertically from the waters. Having passed through the Eastern Ghats, the river widens again, traversing wide lowland plains, the low islands in its stream being used to grow a variety of crops, notably tobacco. At that point the Godavari flows placidly. Just below the city of Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, a dam was constructed on the river in the mid-19th century by the British engineer Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton, the first major irrigation project on the Godavari. Since Indian independence from Britain in 1947, some newer projects have been completed to provide irrigation and hydroelectric power, including the Jayakwadi Dam in west-central Maharashtra, and other projects have been planned.
The upper reaches of the Godavari are dry in winter and spring, making it virtually useless for irrigation. At its mouths, however, the development of a navigable irrigation-canal system, linking its delta with that of the Krishna River to the southwest, has made the land one of the richest rice-growing areas of India. The Godavari, throughout its entire length, is sacred to the Hindus.