Eklavya temple

Haryana, Gurugram, Chandigarh

Probably the only temple in the country in honour of the dedication and sacrifice of Ekalavya, the young archer, is the Eklavya Tirth in Khandsa village in Sector 37 of Gurugram city in Haryana. The one-room Eklavya temple was built in 1721 CE by a prosperous villager. The Khandsa Panchayat maintains the shrine and its premises.

Legend

In the Mahabharata, Ekalavya was the son of Hiranyadhanus, who was the leader of the Nishadhas. Ekalavya once approached Drona to teach him the art of war, especially archery. But Drona harshly rejected him. However, Ekalavya was determined to master archery. He made a mud statue of Guru Drona and started practicing everyday in front of it. Eventually, Ekalavya became an exceptional archer, even better than Arjuna. Drona, was not happy when he came to know of Ekalavya's skill as he had promised Arjuna that he would make him the greatest archer in the world. Drona when he came to know that Ekalavya considered him as Guru, asked Ekalavya to pay guru dakshina. When Ekalavya offered to do anything for Drona, the Guru asked for the thumb from Ekalavya's right hand. Smiling, Ekalavya cut off the thumb and presented it to his Guru. It is believed that his thumb was buried here and a samadhi was built at the current location of the temple.

Architecture

The shrine is a simple one room structure in white. It has a round shaped dome on the top. The shrine is dedicated to Ekalavya.
pic courtesy : http://monvoyage.in/