Mahabaleshwar Temple, Gokarna

The Mahabaleshwar temple in Gokarna, Uttara Kannada, faces the beach on the Arabian Sea and enshrines a Shiva lingam known as the atmalinga or pranalinga. Its origins are traced to the 4th century CE, and Kalidasa mentions the Lord of Gokarna in the Raghuvamsha. It is one of the 275 Shiva shrines praised in the Tamil Tevaram and one of Karnataka's seven Muktikshetras, where many families perform death rites for their dead.

Legend ties the lingam to Ravana. After Indra threw his mother's lingam into the sea, Ravana went to Kailasa to win the atmalinga from Shiva, and the story ends with the lingam fixed at Gokarna, never to be moved. Much of the present complex of shrines dates from the Vijayanagara period. The English traveller John Fryer described the Maha Shivaratri festival here in 1676.