Unai Sahu

The Unai Sahu or Unaya are a Teli sub-caste found in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. They get their name from the town of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, and Unai literally means someone from Unnao.The community consist of two endogamous sub-groups, the Unai proper and the Unawa. They speak the Awadhi dialect, and are Hindus. The Unai Sahu are found mainly in the districts of Raebareli, Barabanki, Faizabad and Gonda.

They derive their name Sahu, or sometimes pronounced Sao and Sah, from their ancestral family business of bankers and money lending: from the Hindi word Sahukar, meaning, in a sense, persons dealing with money. Sahus also have traditional business of oilseeds and oil milling. With the passage of time, they have spread to many parts of India, particularly eastern India.

They bear different surnames in different regions and states of India such as Sahu/Sahoo, Bilsora, Patel, Shah, Shaw/Saw, Prasad, Gupta, Rathore, Vaniyar, Saha, Gorai, Samani, Sadhu-Khan, Das, Kubara/Kubera, Talakar, TeliLingayat, Gandla, Telikula, Modi, Devathilakula, Teli Sahu, Teli Rathod, Ganiga, Bahaldia, Teli, Sethi (Punjabi speaking). People from these community are peace lover, business minded, helpful and religious. Most of the population is in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan states of India.