Dronacharya Temple, Gurugram

The Dronacharya Temple in Bhim Nagar village, Gurugram, is among the very few Hindu temples in India dedicated to Drona, who taught the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata. By the epic's account as told here, Gurugram is where Drona lived and trained his pupils. The present temple was built in 1872 by Singha Bharat, a devotee of Shitala Devi, Drona's wife, who also gave land for other structures linked to him. It has since grown from one room to two and is looked after by five families living nearby.

The pink-painted temple stands on a street corner. A tall statue of Drona occupies the centre, ringed by images of other deities, and paintings on the back wall show him teaching his students. Many visitors to the Sheetla Mata Temple also stop here, and Bhima Kund, the Ekalavya temple and a Shiva temple said to have been built by the Pandavas are nearby.