Dakshin Ganga.

 Gouthama was a great sage of ancient times.He was known for his great austerities.A great famine came and thousands were dying.Goutama used to sprinkle some paddy seeds before going to meditation and after his Puja he used to cut the paddy and out of the rice used to feed all the people who used to come to ashram . This was going on for months.Gods thought this was the opportunity to bring the Ganga to the South .So one day the celestials sent one maya cow to the paddy field planted by sage Gouthama .The sage Gouthama after his Puja saw the cow in the fields.He was shocked to see the cow eating all the paddy field.The sage with the intention of saving the crop threw one straw to scare the cow.The Maya cow immediately fell down and died which made the sage very sad.The sage felt unhappy for having committed Gohatya ( cow slaughter) which is a great sin in Hinduism.He consulted the wise rishis the way to atone for this sin.They said that only immersion of the dead cow in the water of the Ganga will wash away the sin of the rishi.With this advice , Gouthama rishi went on Tapasya to please the Lord Shiva who only can release the Ganga from his locks.Shiva was immensely pleased with the Rishi and appeared before him and granted his wish.Thus was born the river . The place where Gouthama did his Tapasya is on the mountain Brahmagiri near Triambakeshwar.As the water is from Ganga straight from the locks of Shiva it it called Ganga ( Still it is called Ganga in Telangana).Because its due to the efforts of Gouthama its called Gouthami .As it all happened due to a cow (Go in Sanskrit) it is also called Godavari.This is the story behind Godavari, Gouthami or Dakshin Ganga.