Janardan Swami (c. 1504 - c. 1575), or simply Janardan or Janardana was an Indian Hindu scholar, statesman, poet and saint. He was the spiritual guru of prominent 16th-century saint

Eknath Eknath (IAST: Eka-nātha, Marathi pronunciation: knath (1533–1599), commonly known as Sant Eknath was an Indian Hindu saint, philosopher and poet. He was a devotee of the Hindu deity Vitthal and is a major figure of the Warkari movement ...

. His compositions were mostly written in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

. He also wrote a few verses in

Braj Braj, also known as Vraj, Vraja, Brij or Brijbhoomi, is a region in India on both sides of the Yamuna river with its centre at Mathura- Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh state encompassing the area which also includes Palwal and Ballabhgarh in Har ...

Biography

Janardan Swami was born into a

Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Bra ...

, Deshpande family at

Chalisgaon Chalisgaon is a city and a municipal council located in Jalgaon district in the state of Maharashtra, India. Geography Chalisgaon is located at . It has an average elevation of 344 metres (1128 feet). Notable people * Hari Vinay ...

, Maharashtra. They belong to Ashvalayana Sutra and

Shakala Shakha Shakala Shaka (Sanskrit:शाकल शाखा); IAST:''Śākala Śākhā''), is the only surviving shakha (from skt. ''śākhā'' f. "branch" or "recension") of the Rigveda. The Śākala tradition is mainly followed in Maharashtra, Karnataka, ...

. His parents reportedly subscribed to the Asvalayana tradition and were probably adherents of the school of thought initiated by the 8th-century philosopher

Adi Shankaracharya Adi Shankara ("first Shankara," to distinguish him from other Shankaras)(8th cent. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya ( sa, आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, Ādi Śaṅkarācāryaḥ, lit=First Shank ...

. Janardan Swami was a devotee of the Hindu deity

Dattatreya Dattatreya ( sa, दत्तात्रेय, ), Dattā or Dattaguru, is a paradigmatic Sannyasi (monk) and one of the lords of yoga, venerated as a Hindu god. In Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, and M ...

. He was appointed as ''Killedar'' or governor of the fort at Daulatabad (previously Devagiri) by its contemporary Muslim occupants. According to legend, Dattatreya once conversed with Janardan Swami inside a cave within the fort perimeters at Daulatbad. It is also believed that during one of his tours to Ankalakopa, Dattatreya again appeared before him as

Narasimha Saraswati Shree Narasimha Saraswati Swami Or Shree Nrusimha Saraswati Swami (1378−1459) was an Indian guru of Dattatreya tradition(sampradaya). According to the Shri GuruCharitra, he is the second avatar of Dattatreya in ''Kali Yuga'' after Sripada ...

. Narsimha Saraswati was an earlier saint and spiritual master and is widely considered to be the second incarnation of Dattatreya. He is thought to have initiated Janardan Swami under a cluster fig ( ''audumbara'') tree. Janardan Swami had disciples of various social classes and even Indian and Turkic Muslims. Among his disciples,

is considered the most significant while Ramajanardana and Janijanardana are his other well-known disciples. Very few details of Janardan Swami's life are known. On one occasion, he had probably instructed Eknath to embark on a pilgrimage. It is thought that he accompanied his disciple until Trimbakeshwar, a Hindu pilgrimage town near Nashik, Maharashtra. He has composed considerable volumes of devotional poetry, known as ''

abhanga Abhanga () is a form of devotional poetry sung in praise of the Hindu god Vitthal, also known as Vithoba. The word "abhang" comes from ''a'' for "non-" and ''bhang'' for "ending" or "interrupting", in other words, a flawless, continuous process, in ...

''. Janardan Swami breathed his last at Daulatabad where he is believed to have undergone ''

Mahasamadhi ''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga ...

''. His ''samadhi'' shrine is located within a cave on a hill at Daulatabad.

References

External links

*http://santeknath.org/jivangatha.html *Savitribai Khanolkar, ''Saints of Maharashtra'', published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, 3rd Edition, 2000. * https://www.santsahitya.in/sant-janardan/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Janardanswamy Marathi-language writers Marathi-language poets Warkari 16th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians Bhakti movement 16th-century Indian philosophers 16th-century Hindu religious leaders Scholars from Maharashtra People from Jalgaon