Gokarn: The Magha (February) month’s Amavasya (dark moon) after the holy Maha Shivaratri on the 14th day, was observed on Tuesday by devotees and Pilgrims coming to Gokarna Mahabaleswar Temple and seaside in the front, to offer watery homage to ancestors, by rice cooked balls and sacrifices, to please the dead persons in a family, and then conduct charity by offering rice, dhal, grains, and cash to beggars on the outside of temple and the beautiful seashore where once Ravana conducted Sandyavandana, and Gokarna Kshetra was born, for ancestral religious final rites with an At Malinga of Lord Shiva in the temple watching over all that is going on.

The beach and lake Koti Theertha are the places where crowds of Pilgrims go for a bath. Some foreign devotees and hippies were seen cleaning the large tank of Koti Theertha, scared to Saraswats and other Brahmin families.

Gokarn is a region of deliverance, for final rites of dead ancestors or relatives, as Dakshin (Bodh Gaya), where by offering Pinda with til (cooked riceballs) to past elders, they are pacified by eager pilgrims. The local presets collect gifts by way of home- grown vegetables and coconuts, with rice quantities.

On Monday/Tuesday, thousands gathered at Gokarna temples and sea sides, and Pitra Sthaleshwar, to appease ancestors with morsels of cooked rice and prayers for their souls to rest in peace in unseen worlds.