Balaji Temple at Narayanpur Village

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My first outing in Pune was to the Balaji temple near Narayanpur village. I didn’t take my camera with me at that time, but the place/route was good enough to make a second visit within 2 months. The balaji temple near narayanpur is meant to be a replica of the Tirupati temple in all aspects. The priests there have come from Tirupati and every “sevai” done is similar to the one in tirupati. They even give out one laddoo to every visitor!

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The temple is very well maintained and if you visit quite early in the day , you can see the main deity in a matter of minutes whereas on a weekend or in the later half of the day, quite a queue builds up. In summer, the ground gets really hot and it can be quite an experience to reach the comfort of the shade from the point where you leave your slippers. The temple timings are from 5 AM – 8 PM.

Route from Pune to Narayanpur: I stay in Magarpatta, so all the routes mentioned start at Magarpatta! Go towards hadapsar market. Do not go over the flyover, go tothe left of it. Once you see the hadapsar bus stand (to the right, when going from magarpatta), you have to go around it . You have to go on this quite a long distance to reach Saswad village. You will cross a Ghat section to reach Saswad. Once you reach here, you would see a bus stand (a bigger bus stop to be precise!) and also a Sivaji Statue (not a good landmark, as there are hundreds of Sivaji statues all over Maharashtra). Beyond this bus stand, you will see sign boards for Narayanpur. The moment you take this turn, you will enter a maze of extremely small streets. After crossing this village, the greenery starts to open up. This road will take you right into Narayanpur and to the Balaji temple beyond that.

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One of the landmarks you will see on the way is the structure below while crossing a narrow bridge. I somehow get reminded of Angkor Wat whenever i see this photo, dunno why!

Balaji_Temple_Narayanpur_Pune_01The first time when i visited here, the surroundings were pretty dull, but everyone told me that things drastically change with the onset of the monsoons and they were right! The whole route was bathed in green with numerous small waterfalls and streams dotting the sides of the road.

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A trip which should normally take around an hour one-way ended up taking almost double the time, because the temptation to stop the car and go out and take photographs was too much to overcome.

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Just a few kilometres ahead of the balaji temple is the fort hill of Purandar. A small road goes to the left (with clear signs, albeit in Marathis). If yo don’t know Marathi/Hindi, look for the Sivaji photo! We had not planned a visit to this fort, but i drove towards it just to see the demo version so that i can plan an exclusive trip later. The road was in a pretty bad condition. We met one passer-by and confirmed that this indeed was the road up to Purandar. He confirmed that and said that road condition is much worser further on. It had also started raining heavily by then. So, we turned back. But a walk/trek up to Purandar (a drive, if your car is well insured) is a must on the to-do list!

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157 Responses

  1. Rajesh says:

    Very bad experience with this place went from Hubli Karnataka for Darshana but couldn’t. As we went with our mobile phones they told you are not allowed to go in .I took all the mobile phones from my friends and stood near the door there were hardly 25 -30 people as it was too hot I stood near the gate seeing shadow. A security came and told not to stand I requested my friends r inside and as they come I will handover mobile and go for Darshana and it was also Sunny. He pushed me and told it is not his problem and we have not given invitation to come there. After some time the manager or may be care taker came when we told wt had happened the guard threatened us that he will break our hands and legs and will not b able to go alive this is how they behave with devoties was crying till reached Highway without Darshana when they cannot behave properly when so few people were there wt will they do when there is crowd

  2. madhuri keshan says:

    dear sir/mam ,
    i will be travelling frm mumbai to pune fr dis temple darshan at narayanpur can u pl guide me hw we can reach dere by bus or by train.waiting fr ur reply as soon as possible.

  3. Ajay says:

    Can I get the phone number of this place..
    Is there any place for haulting there????

  4. Sudha says:

    Sir, Thanks for the pics and information about narayanapur. We a group of all ladies (cousins) from Bangalore are planning to take Darshan of Baba, and further plans of visiting Bhimashankara, Naryanapur, and kolhapur furing mid week of December 2013. Kindly guide us in this regard.

  5. pankaj says:

    plz send all that photographs,its really too nice plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz send me all photos soon

  6. karthick says:

    nice photos i like thise

  7. Pinky says:

    Can anybody tell me how we can reach the tirupati temple from pune sation as we are coming from mumbai by train and how many hours you require to reach the temple and how to come back from the temple.plz advice as we have our train @ 5.30Pm

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