Place · Hanuman temple · India
Balaji, Churu
Also known as Balaji, Balaji (Hanuman), Churu, Salasar Balaji
The 18-century Balaji Hanuman temple at Churu in Rajasthan — a Marwari trader-community Hanuman shrine famous for its continuous open darshan (no fees, no VIP queue) and its 24-hour free food (bhojan sewa) service. The temple was founded in 1703 by a Marwari merchant community led by Seth Hemraj Khetan of Churu. The temple's distinctive feature is its 365-day uninterrupted langar (free kitchen) that serves 5,000-10,000 meals per day. The temple is one of three principal Rajasthani Hanuman shrines (with Mehandipur Balaji in Dausa district, famous for exorcism, and Salasar Balaji in Churu district). The temple's annual Hanuman Jayanti festival each April draws over 200,000 pilgrims. The Churu Balaji Trust manages the temple and the free-food service through endowments from the Marwari diaspora in Kolkata, Mumbai and overseas.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.730, 74.747
Connections (1)
- Shekhawati folkKhatushyam, Sikar
Sālāsar Bālājī and Khātūshyāmjī are the two great folk-deity pilgrimages of Shekhāwati, fifty kilometres apart in Chūrū and Sīkar. Both grew in the eighteenth century around Marwari trading wealth, both draw enormous foot processions from Jaipur and Delhi, and neither is a temple of the classical sectarian orders. Both deities are addressed as the support of the defeated, which is a claim neither Śaiva nor Vaishnava institutions make and which is much of why the Shekhāwati shrines grew so fast.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Balaji”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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