Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

3031 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
High medieval · Hindu · India

Unao Balaji Sun Temple

Unao, Datia district, Madhya Pradesh · 25.5762°, 78.5998°

Surya (the Sun God, worshipped here as Balaji)Undetermined
Sacred since
1000 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
dating unrecorded
Undetermined

History & significance

A sun temple at Unao, about 17 km from both Datia and Jhansi, whose shrine is engraved with twenty-one triangles taken to represent the twenty-one phases of the Sun, the image standing on a brick platform faced with black plates. Its main priesthood is hereditary in the Kachhi Kushwaha Kshatriya community, and pilgrims bathe for skin ailments in the sulphurous water of the nearby Pahuj river.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

A cow belonging to a Kushwaha Kshatriya villager is said to have poured out her milk at one spot, where a statue of the Sun God was then found; the king of Datia built the temple there and made the cowherd's community its hereditary priests.

Open in Google Maps ↗Wikipedia ↗View on the atlas map

Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-28 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Undetermined