Handiaya is a town six kilometres south-west of Barnala city, on the Bathinda–Sangrur road. Two historic Gurdwaras stand here, of which this is one.

Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji arrived at Handiaya and rested under a grove of trees beside a pond, holding diwan and performing kirtan for the local sangat. At that time a mysterious sickness was afflicting the people of the surrounding villages, and Guru Sahib advised them to bathe in the pond.

One villager objected that tanners dipped their hides in that water, and hesitated to follow the advice. Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji told the villagers to set their prejudice aside, and bathed in the pond himself. A sick man was brought and bathed, and found relief; the others followed, and were cured. The lesson of that day — that no one is unclean, and no water is — is the reason this place is remembered.