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| Hidimba Temple Manali |
A Mahabharat narration
- The Indian epic Mahabharata narrates that Pāndavas stayed in Himachal during their exile. In Manali, a strongest person named Hidimba,a brother of Hidimdi, attacked them, and in the ensuing fight,Bhima,the strongest Pandav, killed him.
- Bhima and Hidimba's sister, Hidimdi, then got married and had a son, Ghatotkacha, (who later proved to be a great warrior in the war against Kauravas).
- When Bhima and his brothers returned from exile, Hidimdi did not accompany him,but stayed back and did tapasyā (a combination of meditation, prayer, and penance) so as to eventually attain the status of a goddess.
Tourist attraction :
- It is an ancient cave temple dedicated to Hidimdi Devi, sister of Hidimba,who was a character in the Indian epic, Mahābhārata. The sanctuary is built over a huge rock cutting out of the ground, which was worshiped as an image of the deity. The structure was built in 1553.
- The most surprising feature of the temple or what believers could call the most reassuring feature of the temple is the fact that inside the temple the imprint of the feet of the Godess carved on a block of stone are worshipped and if you go to Google Satellite and zoom into the area where the temple is located, you can clearly see the imprint of a giant foot spanning across the valley in the area near the temple.
- It's thumb starts from where Google shows the Manali Heights hotel to be located and the rest of the foot goes all the way down the slope.