Gokarna Mahabaleshwar

01The Atmalinga set down

Ravana pleased Mahadev with tapas and asked for his Atmalinga, and Shiva gave it on one condition: wherever it touched the ground, there it would stay. The devas, afraid that Lanka would become unconquerable, asked Shri Ganesh for help. As Ravana reached the coast at sunset, Vishnu veiled the sun, and Ravana, needing to perform sandhya, handed the linga to a Brahmin boy, Ganesh in disguise. The boy called three times and set it down. Ravana tugged until it twisted into the shape of a cow’s ear, go-karna, and in rage he flung away its coverings. Where they fell stand Murudeshwar, Dhareshwar, Gunavanteshwar and Sajjeshwar, which with Gokarna make the five great kshetras of this coast.

02A tirtha of the epics

The Mahabharata’s tirtha-yatra chapters of the Vana Parva name Gokarna, honoured in the three worlds, on the shore of the ocean. Kalidasa in the Raghuvamsha has Narada flying over it on his way to sing to Shiva at Gokarna. The present temple is of granite in the coastal style, with sloping tiled roofs; the Atmalinga is enshrined below floor level and can be touched only through the opening in its pitha. On a high platform in the town is the shrine of Maha Ganapati, the boy who set the linga down, with a dent on his head that Ravana’s blow left. Shivaratri brings the great chariot procession.

The life of this place