There are a hundreds of temples devoted to Lord Shiva in India. Devotees worship Lord Shiva worship in different forms. But, the Lord hears prayers of his followers and fulfills their prayers.
But, what if, I tell you that there is a temple in Uttarakhand where people are afraid to come to Lord Shiva’s temple, forget about prayers and worship. People come to the temple from across the country, but only to praise the temple from outside. No one dares to enter it and offer prayers to the Lord.
This ancient temple of Lord Shiva is located in Hatia Naula of Champawat district of Uttarakhand. It is said that this temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is cursed. In this temple, devotees come from far and wide to visit Lord Shiva. They come here and admire the unique architecture of this temple and return to their homes back, but they do not worship here.
As per beliefs, the temple was built by one hand, so it is called a Handiya deval temple.
According to the belief, there lived a sculptor in this village who used to cut stones to make sculptures, but once in an accident, he lost one of his hands. Even after losing one hand, he wanted to continue the work of making sculptures. But the villagers often taunted him that he could not do with the help of one hand.
After repeatedly listening to the villagers’ taunts, his mind was very sad, after which he decided that he would not be in that village. One night, he went to the southern end of the village, taking his chisels, hammers and other tools.
The next morning, when a man from the village went in this direction, he found that in the night someone had cut the rock and had given it the form of a temple. Seeing all this, all the villagers gathered and waited for the artisan, but he did not return and had left the village forever after sculpting the temple.
He had prepared a magnificent temple in one night, but instead of making Shivalinga’s Argha in the north, he made it in the south direction. The people here believe that this Shivalinga with a contagious Argha is not worthy of worship and worshiping it can be unnecessary, hence no one has ever worshiped this Shivalinga till date.
It is noteworthy that in this temple of Lord Shiva a wonderful specimen of sculpture, but due to the Arghalis in the opposite direction of the temple, people come here only to visit and return without worship.