Ravana and the Atmalinga

The story

Ravana won the atmalinga from Shiva by penance at Kailasha, on the condition that it would stay rooted wherever it first touched the ground. As he travelled south, Ganesha, disguised as a Brahmin boy, offered to hold it while Ravana performed his rites, and set it down at Gokarna when Ravana did not return in time.¹

The linga would not move. Regional legend adds that Ravana, failing to lift it, flung away its covering cloth, and that Murudeshwar marks where the cloth fell.²