Janardan Swami

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Janardan Swami
Personal life
Bornc. 1504
Chalisgaon, Khandesh Sultanate
Diedc. 1575
Daulatabad, Ahmadnagar Sultanate
Religious life
Religion Hinduism
OrderAnand Sampradaya
Religious career
GuruNagababa
Disciples

Janardan Swami (c. 1504 - c. 1575), also Janardan was an Indian Hindu scholar, statesman, poet and saint. He was the spiritual guru of prominent 16th-century Hindu saint Eknath. His compositions were mostly written in Marathi language. He also wrote a few verses in Braj language. [3] [4]

Contents

Biography

Janardan Swami was born into a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin family at Chalisgaon, a town in present-day Maharashtra. His family were believed to be adherants of the AshvalayanaSutra, a collection of Indian texts detailing domestic rituals for householders. His parents belonged to the Shakala Shakha, a branch of the Rigvedic tradition. [5] They also subscribed to Advaita Vedanta, the school of thought initiated by 8th-century Indian philosopher Adi Shankaracharya.

Janardan Swami was a devotee of Dattatreya, a Hindu deity. [6] He held the position of killedar or governor of the fort at Daulatabad. [7] [8]

According to legend, Dattatreya once held a conversation with Janardan Swami inside a cave within the fort perimeters at Daulatabad. It is also believed that during one of his visits to Ankalakopa, the deity once again appeared before Janardan Swami as Narasimha Saraswati. Narsimha Saraswati was an earlier saint and spiritual master and is widely considered to be the second incarnation of Dattatreya. He is claimed to have initiated Janardan Swami under a cluster fig (audumbara) tree. Janardan Swami had disciples belonging to various social classes. Among his disciples, Eknath is considered to be the most significant, and Ramajanardana and Janijanardana are his other prominent disciples. [9]

Few details of his life are known. On one occasion, he instructed Eknath to embark on a pilgrimage. It is thought that he accompanied his disciple until Trimbakeshwar, a Hindu pilgrimage town near Nashik, Maharashtra. [10]

He composed considerable volumes of devotional poetry, known as abhanga .

He died at Daulatabad, where he is believed to have undergone Mahasamadhi . A samadhi or shrine commemorating Janardan Swami is located within a cave on a hill at Daulatabad. [11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ D. B. Mokashi (1 July 1987). Palkhi: An Indian Pilgrimage. SUNY Press. pp. 110–. ISBN   978-0-88706-462-3.
  2. ↑ K. R. Sundararajan; Bithika Mukerji (2003). Hindu Spirituality: Postclassical and Modern. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 38. ISBN   9788120819375.
  3. ↑ Sujit Mukherjee (1998). A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Beginnings-1850. Orient Blackswan. p. 145. ISBN   9788125014539.
  4. ↑ Maxine Berntsen (1 January 1988). The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra. SUNY Press. pp. 97–98. ISBN   978-0-88706-662-7.
  5. ↑ Hariprasad Shivprasad Joshi (1965). Origin and Development of Dattātreya Worship in India. Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. p. 101.
  6. ↑ Hariprasad Shivprasad Joshi (1965). Origin and Development of Dattātreya Worship in India. Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. p. 101.
  7. ↑ Ramchandra Dattatraya Ranade (1 January 1983). Mysticism in India: The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra. SUNY Press. pp. 214–. ISBN   978-0-87395-669-7.
  8. ↑ Pushkar Sohoni (30 August 2018). The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late Medieval India. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 63. ISBN   978-1-83860-928-3.
  9. ↑ Savitribai Khanolkar (1978). Saints of Maharashtra. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 99.
  10. ↑ Shantsheela Sathianathan (1996). Contributions of saints and seers to the music of India, Volume 2. Kanishka Publishers, Distributors. pp. 438–439. ISBN   9788173911118.
  11. ↑ R. D. Ranade (1982). Mysticism in Maharashtra: Indian Mysticism. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 214. ISBN   9788120805767.
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