Bhimashankar’s mythology centers on the demon Tripurasura, who is said to have performed intense penance in these forests to gain power from Lord Shiva. According to the legend recounted in the Shiva Purana, Tripurasura’s boons eventually made him arrogant and destructive, and the gods pleaded with Shiva to intervene. Shiva took on a colossal, fierce form — the “Bhima” of Bhimashankar — and destroyed the demon in a battle fought in this very forest. In the aftermath, devotees requested Shiva to remain here permanently in the form of a Jyotirlinga, and he is said to have done so, manifesting as the self-born linga worshipped today.

Historically, the temple’s foundations are traced to around the 13th century, making it one of the older Jyotirlinga sites still in continuous worship. The structure seen today, however, isn’t purely from that era — the sabhamandap and shikhara were rebuilt and expanded in the 18th century under the patronage of Nana Phadnavis, the influential statesman of the Peshwa administration, whose contributions to temple architecture across Maharashtra (including work associated with other Jyotirlingas) left a lasting mark on the region’s religious landscape.

Over the centuries, Bhimashankar’s remote, forested location — challenging to reach for much of its history — meant it retained a wilder, less commercialized character compared to some other Jyotirlingas. That isolation is part of why the surrounding forest survived largely intact and was eventually protected as a wildlife sanctuary in 1984, layering ecological significance on top of the temple’s religious importance.