Hadimba Temple, built with the pagoda-like roof & surmounted by a cupola, is probably the most notable in Manali region. This peculiarly built temple is a considerably large structure, 48 feet long and 28 feet wide. Three sides of the temple are surrounded by verandah; and the door-way, which is to east, is covered with rude carvings on wood, of birds, tigers, elephants and the Buddhist wheels. The whole structure is raised on a huge platform so that the verandahs are twelve feet from the ground, and the roof formed of big deodar planks, slopes over these. The outside view shows “a superstructure which bears up another sloping roof, on the top of which is again some fancy wood work that is surmounted by another roof with the same incline as have those below, all being of a shape to fit the four- square lie of the temple; but on the top is fixed a circular umbrella-like cone of deodar planks, which has fallen significantly to the north side, being ornamented on the summit by a brass ball and trident.”
The whole structure is some 80 feet in height from the ground. The temple is held in great veneration and is devoted to the goddess Hadimba. Located as it is in the deep gloom of the pine forest, it becomes a very striking and venerable shrine. The interior of the shrine can be viewed only from the doorway. Formerly only high caste people were permitted to enter and worship. Inside there are large stones, and a rope hangs from the roof. The legends narrate that in old times human beings were sacrificed and suspended to the rope by the hands after death and swung to and from over the goddess, which is represented by a small brass image only 3 inches in height. On the northern portal of the doorway is an effigy of a snake in iron. The date of erection of the Dhungari temple is not certain. The present wooden structure undoubtedly may be a couple of centuries old. The legend connected with its construction avers that it is older than the Triloknath Temple. It is stated that the ruler of Kullu cut off the right-hand of the carver with a view to prevent him from even making a duplicate of such a masterpiece. The carver, however, practised his art with the left-hand, and baffled the Raja by executing even a finer edifice at Triloknath Temple in Chamba. The carver, however, was met with equal ingenuity and the people of Triloknath cut off his head and thus effectively removed the feasibility of repetition of such a fine workmanship. It is highly probable that the present superstructure of Hadimba Temple stands at a more ancient site and is “the fascimile of a structure coeval with the earliest days of Kullu". Most of these temples have ‘bhandars’ in which are stored the musical instruments and the gold and silver marks, the rath and a ‘singhasan’ for the deity.
All these objects are put in their respective use on ceremonious occasions. Smaller shrines, the rectangular wooden temples, are found everywhere, on wooded slopes of mountains, nestling under some big tree in villages or close to a waterfall. The village deities are held in high esteem but are housed in barn-like humbler shrine and a few naturally shaped stones are raised to represent the deities. These shrines are almost completely built of wood and belong to a very later period than the other types of shrines.