Ramkund, Kushavarta stamps to mark Nashik Kumbh flag hoisting on October 31

India's postal department will release special stamps showing Ramkund in Nashik and Kushavarta Tirtha in Trimbakeshwar on Saturday, October 31, 2026, the day the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela formally begins with the hoisting of its flag (Dhwajarohan), according to reports from Nashik on October 27. The stamps, made under the Department of Posts' My Stamp scheme, are to be unveiled at the ceremony, which will be held at both holy sites at the same moment.

The Simhastha Kumbh is held in Nashik and Trimbakeshwar roughly once every twelve years, when, according to the traditional calendar, the planet Jupiter (Brihaspati) is in the sign of Leo (Simha). That is where the name Simhastha comes from. It is one of the four Kumbh Melas in India, alongside those at Prayagraj, Haridwar and Ujjain. The flag hoisting does not mean that the main bathing days have arrived; it is the ritual opening of a long sacred period, and the largest crowds are expected only in 2027.

The two sites on the stamps represent the two streams of devotion that meet at this Kumbh. Ramkund, on the Godavari in the heart of old Nashik, is linked in tradition to Lord Rama's stay in the Panchavati area during his exile, and it is the bathing place of the Vaishnav akharas. Kushavarta Tirtha in Trimbakeshwar, near the Jyotirlinga temple and the source of the Godavari, is the bathing place of the Shaiv akharas. Reports on the stamps describe them in these terms, with Ramkund tied to the Vaishnav tradition and the Amrut Snan, and Kushavarta tied to the Shaiv tradition and Trimbakeshwar's identity.

Shekhar Singh, commissioner of the Nashik Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority, said the stamps would help carry the importance of both sites to a wider audience. Commemorative stamps are a small but lasting record: they are collected, posted around the world and kept in philatelic archives long after an event ends.

The ceremony also comes with practical questions. Local reports in the week before the event noted that the riverbed at Ramkund had run dry and asked whether water would be released into the Godavari in time. Environmental activists have also raised concerns over chromium pollution from the Ambad industrial area reaching the Godavari and Nandini rivers. Regional pollution board officials said 25 companies had been ordered to stop production and show-cause notices had been issued to 16 more.

Short-term: Nashik and Trimbakeshwar will see heavy crowds, security arrangements and traffic changes around Ramkund and Kushavarta Tirtha on October 31. Stamp collectors can expect the new My Stamp sheets to be sold through the postal department after the release.

Long-term: The opening starts the countdown to the 2027 bathing days, which draw the largest crowds. The state's road, water and river-cleaning works, and the response to the pollution concerns, will decide how well the two towns cope.

Who is affected: Pilgrims and the akharas, residents and traders of Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, the tribal communities taking part in the aarti, stamp collectors, and the state and central agencies running the Kumbh.

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