Dauji (Baldev)
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This village of Baldev is situated four km south of Vandi, 26 km from Mathura. This is a pastime place of Sri Baladeva. Here Sri Baladeva just independently showed His own form to the cowherdboys, hence this village is named Sri Baldev.
Here one can see the largest and most famous deity of Lord Balarama in the whole of Vraja, who is known affectionately as Dauji, which means Krishna’s elder brother. The deity is almost seven feet tall and was installed by Vajranabha Maharaja. It is said that once Balarama (Dauji), while herding cows at this place and showed His original form as the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the cowherd boys, therefore Vajranabha established the deity of Dauji here as the presiding deity of the eastern petal of the lotus of Vraja. Sometimes Dauji is mentioned as being the presiding deity of the southern petal, but this post is also credited to Lord Varaha, who resides at the southern-most tip of Vraja at Saukari-Vateshwara (Batasar). This temple of Dauji marks the most southerly point on the Vraja Mandala Parikrama route. The Puranas say that Baldev is also one of the famous upavanas or sub-forests of Vraja.
In the course of time, the deity of Dauji was lost and probably hidden during the period of the Greco-Bactrian, Saka, and Kushan invasions of India that began around 150 BC. It is most likely that all the prominent deities of Vrindavana Dhama were hidden in kundas or buried underground during this period including; Govindaji, Gopinathaji, Madana-mohan. The city of Mathura fell under the control of the invading armies and by the trun of the 1st Century became their southern capital of the Kushan Empire. The Kushans, who were Turko-Iranians, are originally believed to have been Zoroastrians, but soon converted to Buddhism and under the leadership of Kushan kings like Kanishka, Vasishka, Huvishka, and Rajulu, Buddhism became the most prominent religion in Northern India for the next seven hundred years. During their rule, Mathura was converted into one of the most important places of Buddhist culture and learning in the whole of India.
The deity of Dauji had not yet been rediscovered during the time of Lord Chaitanya or the Six Goswamis, but was discovered around one hundred and fifty years later, lying at the bottom of an ancient kunda in the town of Baldev (Baldeo). During the re-installation ceremony of the deity, it is said that the local residents poured milk from a hundred thousand cows into the kunda where Dauji was found, as an offering to the deity. The kunda then became celebrated as Ksirasagara-kunda, which means the kunda containing the ‘ocean of milk’. This same kunda is also called Sankarshana-kunda, which is another name of Lord Balarama. In the temple, the deity of Dauji or Lord Balarama can be seen holding a cup of varuni-rasa in His left hand. Hidden to the side of Lord Balarama is the Lord’s eternal consort Revati Devi, who is visible from just one side of the alter doorway, probably because her deity was installed at a later date sometime after the temple was built.