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top 10 most scary & amazing secrets of demon goddess Hadimba
From animal to even human sacrifice rituals, the Hadimba temple of Manali has been hiding some sinister secrets of the demon goddess, who is celebrated for her bloodlust.
1. A blood-thirsty demon goddess
Hadimba is celebrated as a demon goddess, a blood-thirsty Rakshsi, who devoured human flesh. In the local folklore she is addressed as Hirma, a devil spirit who wandered in the forests. Her temple lies in the dense Deodar forests of Dhungari village of Manali in Himachal Pradesh.
English writer and traveller Penelope Chetwode had described Hadimba as “a sinister, blood-loving goddess” before her transformation into a goddess. It’s because of the blood symbolism that Hadimba is also revered as Kali, a Hindu goddess known for her bloodlust in the Indian religious mythology.
2. Animal sacrifice at the Hadimba temple
To appease the demon goddess, animals especially goats, sheep and buffaloes used to be beheaded as part of a blood and gore ritual. To witness the ritual, hundreds of locals from all around the Kullu valley used to gather at the temple on a pre-decided month and date. In the smoky aroma of burning juniper, amidst loud music of dhols and Karnahals, and in the presence of a possessed and shaking Gur or the medium of the goddess, buffalo would be beheaded with a darat, a scythe-shaped blunt iron instrument made locally.
After the ritual killing, the blood-dripping head and the body of the animal would be dragged through the front yard of the temple and down the stone stairs and later disposed of. The bloody ritual used to be performed every three years. The sacrifice was called Atharah Bali or Eighteen Sacrifices as 18 different animals used to be killed.
John Calvert, an English traveller, who visited the Kullu valley in 1869, was the first one to portray the animal sacrifice at the Hadimba temple for the outside world. When Calvert reached the temple, a buffalo was about to be beheaded. A horrified Calvert left the temple before the buffalo was killed. However, he did manage to draw the scene, leaving us the first image of the temple and of animal sacrifice.
Calvert later wrote in his book, Vazeeri Rupi: The Silver Country of the Vazeers in Kullu, that it was a dreadful and nearly fainting experience.
“The headmen and priests assembled in front of the temple amid the shouts of the people, the bellowing of trumpets and horns and the beating of drums…Suddenly they all let their long hair fall loose and shook it over their faces and swung their heads round and round, giving them a most demoniacal expression. Presently, the buffalo was brought up and I left the place. As I descended the hill, I heard the repeated thuds of heavy cutlass and other weapons in the buffalo, who was eventually hacked to pieces. I am told by a Eurasian, who was there, that he nearly fainted from the sickness at the sight before he could manage to extricate himself from the crowd, the whole place flowing with blood,” writes Calvert.
Animal sacrifice continued for almost five centuries and was finally banned in 2014 following an order from the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
3. Human sacrifice at the temple
Along with the animal sacrifice, was human sacrifice also practised at the Hadimba temple to appease the Hadimba goddess? Given the demonic worship, ritualistic animal killings and blood association of Hadimba, it’s highly probable.
A number of historians, archaeologists, colonial officials and even locals also believe that.
AFP Harcourt, who served as the Assistant Commissioner of Kullu from 1869 to 1871, was among the first ones to bring forth the theory of human sacrifice in the temple.
He believed that human sacrifice was indeed practiced at the Hadimba temple. Harcourt writes in his book, Himalayan Districts of Kooloo, Lahoul and Spiti (1871), that in the interior of the Hadimba temple “there are large rocks and a rope hangs from the roof, to which human victims were in old times suspended after death, and swung to and fro over the goddess.”
Hiranand Sastri, an archaeologist who also served as an official of the Archaeological Survey of India, also argues in one of his works that human sacrifices were done at the Hadimba temple “within the living memory of the people.”
Minakshi Chaudhary in her book, Destination Himachal, also mentions that “Hidimba has been worshipped since ancient times and offerings to her included human sacrifice.”
Captain Alfred Banon, a British official who settled down in Manali near Dhungri village after marrying a local girl in the years after Britishers won Kullu hills from the Sikhs in 1846, also believed human sacrifice was practised in the temple.
In a letter, he wrote to the Borderland magazine editor in 1895, Banon says that the Hadimba goddess can answer your queries through a medium but first you need to sacrifice a kid or lamb to her.
“She can always be interrogated through one of her mediums. But first a kid or a lamb must be sacrificed to her. The replies are sometimes wonderfully accurate.” Banon’s descendants still live in Manali.
4. Hadimba in Mahabharata
It’s believed that Hidimba demoness mentioned in the epic Mahabharata is the same Hadimba of Manali forests. According to a popular legend, a fearsome demoness, Hadimba, used to live in the forests with his cannibal brother Hadimb.
One day, while wondering in the forests she spotted warrior Bhim with his four Pandava brothers and fell in love with him. She changed her demonic appearance and took the form of a beautiful maiden and approached Bhim. As it turned out, Hadimb didn’t like this relationship one bit and challenged Bhim for a duel. Bhim killed Hadimb and married Hadimba. They had a son, named Ghatotkach, who helped Pandavas in the battle of Mahabharata and was killed at the hands of warrior Karna.
5. From Harima to Hadimba to Hidimba
Is the Hidimba of Mahabharata the Hadimba of Manali? Many writers and historians have raised a question mark over the association of Hadimba with Mahabharata. Many historians believe that this association was formed as part of a drive by local Rajas to assimilate unique local customs and traditions with the mainstream Hindu religion. “Many demonic spirits were admitted to the Puranic traditions and given a sympathetic garb and projected as humane in nature. Temples came to be built for them at their traditional places of abode in the thick of jungles or on the mountain peaks,” writes OC Handa, a historian.
In local traditions, the temple was simply and is still called as Dhungri temple and the deity is addressed as ‘Hirma.’ It’s also interesting to note that while Mahabharata mentions a demoness ‘Hidimba’ but the temple is called and named ‘Hadimba’ locally.
Even archaeologist J Ph. Vogel also calls the temple as ‘Hirma temple’ in his paper in the Archaeological Survey of India report of 1903-04. The temple is known for its exquisite carvings of gods and goddesses and animals. However, interestingly, none of the carvings depict any scene from the Mahabharata — of Bhim or Hidimba or Pandavas, indicating that the Mahabharata association could have come later after the temple was already built.
6. The dark and scary cave temple of Hadimba
Hadimba temple was got constructed by Raja Bahadur Singh of erstwhile Kullu princely state in 1553 AD. Built in the pagoda style and made of wood, the temple has three wooden roofs, whose width rises in descending order from top to down. The structure is surrounded by wooden balcony on the three sides. The front part has some excellent wooden carvings.
Interestingly, a wooden inscription engraved on the temple wall just above the right corner of the entrance has not yet been decoded. It’s written in Takri script. There is no trustworthy translation of the inscription so far.
But what you see is the façade. The goddess is enshrined inside a dark cave in a huge rock, about four meter high, around which the temple is built. Carved in the stone is a pair of unusually big black feet of the demon goddess in her cave. According to the legend, the cave was the abode of Hadimba.
Ehud Halperin, a research scholar who did a paper on the temple for Columbia University in 2012, writes that “the temple is dark, cold and a bit spooky — a perfect home for the goddess.”
Halperin writes that “anyone who visits Hadimba temple can immediately sense its Rakshsi atmosphere. The location of the temple, in the midst of a thick forest, animal horns attached to its outer walls, the underground cave in which the goddess is enshrined and her usually big feet, all add to the spooky atmosphere.”
“And if one visits the temple at night, when there is no one around and the structure is lit with a faint yellow light, the effect is even greater,” he adds.
7. Chopping off the hand of Hadimba temple’s architect
Mrikula Devi temple in Udaipur of Lahaul Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh is also said to have been constructed by the same artisan who built the Hadimba temple. The legend has it that upon seeing the beauty of the Hadimba temple, Raja Bahadur Singh decided that such a magnificent structure should not be built again. So, he ordered to cut off the right hand of the artisan.
Enraged by the brutality of the Raja, the artisan went on to construct the Mrikula Devi temple in Udaipur with his one hand. However, he paid a price with his life by disobeying the royal decree. When the Raja came to know of this temple, he immediately ordered the execution of the artisan.
8. Hadimba, the grandmother of Kullu royals
There is a strong association between Hadimba Devi and the erstwhile rulers of Kullu princely state. According to a local belief, Hadimba had crowned the founding father of the local dynasty. This is why local Raja and his family members still address her as dadee or grandmother. Nowhere this connection becomes more evident but in the Kullu Dussehra.
9. Hadimba, the chief deity of Kullu Dussehra
World famous Kullu Dussehra is not complete without the presence of Hadimba goddess. The Dussehra starts and ends with rituals dedicated to Hadimba. A day before Dussehra festival starts, the palanquin of Hadimba goddess is carried by her devotees from Manali to Ramsheela near Kullu, covering a distance of around 42 kms on foot. Next day, a special messenger of the royal family, known as Chhadiwardar reaches Ramsheela with the sacred silver stick of Lord Raghunath, the presiding deity of Dussehra, and escorts Hadimba devi to the Raghunath temple.
Upon her arrival, special rituals are performed at the Raghunath temple and at Kullu Raja’s palace and thereafter the Hadimba palanquin leads over 250 deities and the chariot of Lord Raghunath to the Dhalpur ground, where the Dussehra festival is held.
On the last day of the Dussehra, there used to be a ritual of animal sacrifice in the presence of Hadimba goddess but the Himachal Pradesh High Court put a ban on it in 2012. Rituals still take place but without the sacrifice bit.
10. An all-powerful weather-controlling goddess
There are over 350 deities in Kullu, also called the ‘valley of the gods.’ Almost every village or a group of villages has its own deity. There is a strong belief in the valleys of Kullu that their powerful deities can help or harm them. They also believe that the deities also hold sway over the weather.
However, goddess Hadimba has a special place when it comes to predicting weather and other related events. She is believed to have control and influence over the weather of the entire region and is consulted annually by locals in times of rains, floods or drought. The locals both fear and respect the “ability of the goddess to control weather events including rains, floods and snow.”
After the unprecedented floods in the Beas river of 2023, Hadimba goddess had warned the people through her medium that “if they don’t mend their ways and leave the path of greed, I would ensure that river Beas gets flooded again and flows right under my feet.”
