Venkaţa is a very sacred hill in the Dravidian

Dravidian peoples

Dravidian peoples is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers of around 220 million are found mostly in Southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka,...

 country, in the district of North Arcot

North Arcot

The Indian District of North Arcot was split on 30-09-1989 into Tiruvannamalai-Sambuvarayar and North Arcot Ambedkar .- History :...

, about 80 miles from Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

. It is about 2500 feet high above sea level. On its summit is the celebrated temple dedicated to Krishna

Krishna

Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

 or Vishnu

Vishnu

Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....

 in his character of Venkateshwara

Venkateshwara

Venkateswara also known as Srinivasa, Balaji, Venkata and Venkatachalapati , is a form of the Hindu god Vishnu. Venkateswara means the Lord who destroys the sins of the people...

(= "Lord of Venkaţa"), also called Shrî-pati or Tirupati, whence the hill is sometimes popularly known as Tri-pati. Venkata Vemuri, a Hindu prince, is known as the man who originated its name

Tirupati or Venkata or Venkatachalapathy - all these names are currently corresponding to the more popular version of this name BALAJI.