India is a religious country. People in this country worship thousands of deities.
Interestingly, there is a temple where devotees offer prayers to deities without heads. Yes, you heard it right! It might sound strange, but it is true. Till date, people worship headless deities in a temple which is located at Pratapgarh village, just 170 km from Lucknow.
Idols of the deities are more than 900 years old. They are being preserved and worshiped by people in the village. The temple has a unique name — Ashtabhuja Dham Mandir. It is said that the heads of statues of this temple were cut on the orders of King Aurangzeb who was sixth Mughal emperor.
According to ASI, Aurangzeb ordered the demolition of this temple and to protect the temple, priests of this temple prepared mosque like illusion on the main entrance of the temple, to confuse the soldiers of Aurangzeb.
But an army chief looked at the temple’s bell and asked his soldiers to go inside the temple and the heads of the idols were cut off. Even today the idols of this temple are in the same way.
PNN/Agencies