The Balaji, a famous and rare sun temple of its own unique architecture, is situated in a very small town Unao of Datia

Datia

Datia is a small rural town and a municipality in Datia district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative center of Datia District. It was formerly the seat of the eponymous princely state in the British Raj. Datia is situated near Gwalior and on the border with Uttar...

 district in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

. The Balaji temple was built in the pre-historic time by the king of Datia.

History and Myth

It is said that, a cow used to go to a particular place to get fed in the outskirts of Unao. The cow every day pours her milk at that particular place. The cow was belong to a person of caste "Kachhi", the people of this caste generally used to grow vegetables. The owner of cow was not aware of this incident. Once a person of chamar

Chamar

Chamar |tanner]]"; from the Sanskrit Charmakara) is a prominent occupational caste in India, Pakistan and Nepal. Chamar is a Dalit sub-caste mainly found in the northern states, such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and in Nepal at least north to the Himalayas...

 caste

Caste

Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

 saw that the cow is pouring her milk on the earth. The people of this cast have the occupation of assassinating cows. He immediately grabbed the opportunity and assassinated the cow. On the following night, The God Sun comes in the dreams of the king of Datia and told the king to dig him out from the location, where the cow used to pour her milk. Next morning, King called his boys and dug out the place and found a statue of GOD SUN. He built a temple in Unao and established the statue on a brick platform, and as said by the god sun, the owner of that cow has been assigned the Priest. Since then only people belonging to "Kachhi" caste can only sit at the brick platform and offer garlands, prasadas to the deity. While in India, only a person belonging to Brahmin caste can offer worship. The pilgrims and pandas(people belong to brahmin caste)also take part in the worship of the deity but the main priest is said to be "Kachhi" caste people.

Geography

The Balaji temple is situated in the vicinity of Unao. Unao is a small town which falls under Datia district in Madhya Pradesh. Unao is 17 km away from Datia and around 16 km from Jhansi (famous for Jhanshi ki Rani, LakshmiBai)Jhansi

Jhansi

Jhansi Hindi:झाँसी, , Marathi: झाशी, is a historical city of India. Jhansi is the administrative headquarters of Jhansi District and Jhansi Division. The original walled city grew up around its stone fort, which crowns a neighboring rock. This district is on the bank of river Betwa.The National...

. Unao, makes a segment of a circle with Datia and Jhansi being the crossing point of the chords in the segment.
Unao can be reached by any of the two places.Jhansi is also a Rail junction in the central railway. All the trains coming from Bhobal to delhi are passed through Jhanshi. This location of unao, made it a place to visit.

if you want to come here from Datia u have to just reach to station. and take an auto riksha in only rs. 7/- and reach to bus stand and from here give 12/- rs to bus and reached to unao . Here u will see a big gate go to inside the gate and go straight when ever u will not reached at temple.
thank you for coming in incridible unao

Temple Architecture

The Sun Temple http://www.india9.com/i9show/Sun-Temple-at-Unao-28561.htm at Unao in Madhya Pradesh is unique in its architecture. The Sun God is the main deity of this temple. The Sun God stands on a brick platform covered with black plates. Twenty-one triangles, representing the 21 phases of the Sun are engraved in the shrine. Here, special worship is offered on Sundays. Local belief is that worshippers find relief from skin ailments at this temple.

Significance

The deity Balaji is very much famous for curing skin ailments. People from far distant places come and worship the deity. Below the temple, a river Pahooj is also flowing. There are some wells in the river, at the time of summer, people used to have bathe with the water in the wells. It is said that, if you have bathe in river and offer water to deity Balaji, all your incurable skin ailments will be cured within few days. Sunday is considered as the day of deity Balaji (Sun). All the inhabitants of Unao and the surrounding region has enormous faith in the deity and also have felt the power of it. Each family in unao have at least one member in government jobs.But the bad thing is that the PANDAs (pujari) rob the people with a huge money.