Gokarna Mahabaleshwar Temple
A Shaiva pilgrimage temple on the Karavali coast, believed to house the Atmalinga described in the Ramayana — the spiritual anchor of a town whose crescent beaches later made it one of India's best-known backpacker destinations.
Gokarna takes its name from its cow-ear-shaped (“go-karna”) coastline at the confluence of two rivers, and has been a Shaiva pilgrimage site for centuries, centred on the Mahabaleshwara Temple, believed to house the Atmalinga described in the Ramayana. From the 1980s onward, the same town’s string of secluded crescent beaches — Om, Kudle, Half Moon, and Paradise — turned it into one of India’s most recognisable backpacker and yoga retreat destinations, giving Gokarna an unusually direct overlap between ancient pilgrimage route and modern coastal tourism trail.
Getting there: Gokarna is on the Konkan Railway line and roughly 240 km from Bengaluru via Sirsi/Kumta. The post office is in the old town, close to the Mahabaleshwara Temple and a short walk from Gokarna’s main beach.
The site itself
Where to get your stamp cancelled
This may not be next to the site itself — some post offices serve several nearby landmarks.
- Post office
- Gokarna Post Office
- Pincode
- 581326
- Address
- Gokarna Post Office, Gokarna, Kumta Taluk, Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka
Sources
- Project maintainer transcription of the physical Philately Passport booklet (district/landmark/post office list)
- Gokarna pincode/post office record — postoffices.co.in