According to the Mahabharata tradition, Barbarik, the son of Ghatotkacha, was a supremely powerful warrior who possessed three arrows that could destroy entire armies. Before the Kurukshetra war, Krishna asked for Barbarik's head as a sacrifice, which was granted. The head was buried at Khatu. The idol was discovered in the 11th century when a farmer's plow struck it, revealing blood.
The current temple was rebuilt in the 20th century after the original structure fell into disrepair. The temple gained massive popularity in the 1980s-1990s and continues to grow.
