Krishna River Cruises & Boat Tours

About the Krishna

Krishna, revered in scripture as Krishnaveni, is the second longest river of peninsular India and the enduring lifeline of the Deccan. She rises at Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, near the ancient temple town of Jor, and travels close to 1,400 kilometres eastward. Her course carries her through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh before she merges with the Bay of Bengal at Hamsaladeevi. The Bhima, Tungabhadra, Koyna, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha, Musi and Munneru join her along the way, swelling her waters season after season. Along her banks stand some of the holiest seats of faith — the Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga at Srisailam and the shrine of Kanaka Durga at Vijayawada. She also flows past Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda, where Buddhist stupas and monasteries once drew scholars from across Asia. The Almatti, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs, together with the Prakasam Barrage, harness her strength for power and irrigation. Her delta is one of the richest granaries in the country, turning millions of acres green with paddy, sugarcane and pulses. From the legendary mines of Kollur on her banks came the Koh-i-Noor and other diamonds that shaped the fortunes of empires. Every twelve years the Krishna Pushkaralu bring lakhs of pilgrims to her ghats, a reminder that she is worshipped as mother, not merely used as a river.