Jagannātha(1590-1674), also known as Jagannātha Paṇḍita or Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja, or Jagannatha Pandita Rayalu, was a famous poet and literary critic who lived in the 17th century. As a poet, he is known for writing the ''Bhāminī-vilāsa'' ("The Sport of the Beautiful Lady (Bhāminī)"). He was a

Telugu Brahmin Telugu Brahmins are Brahmin communities native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. History Origin theories According to the ''Aitareya Brahmana'' of the Rigveda, the Andhras left north India from the banks of the River Yamuna a ...

from Khandrika (Upadrasta) family and a junior contemporary of Emperor Akbar. As a literary theorist or rhetorician, he is renowned for his ''Rasagaṅgādhara'', a work on poetic theory. He was granted the title of Paṇḍitarāja by the Mughal emperor

Shah Jahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...

, at whose court he received patronage.

Career

He was a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

scholar, poet and a musician from Munikhanda Agraharam (present day Munganda),

East Godavari District East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajahmundry. As of census 2011, it became the most populous district of the state with a population of 5,151,549. In the Madras Pre ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, India. He later lived in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, India. Jagannatha Pandita Raya's contributions were, "Rasa Gangadharam" (Alankara Sastram), Ganga Lahari, and Five Vilasams in

Sanskrit language Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the lat ...

. He served in the courts of the Mughal emperors Jehangir and Shah Jahan. Some writers say that Jagannath Pandit Raj (as he was called) was born (1590) in a Veginadu Andhra Brahmin family. His father Perubhatt and mother Laxmi both were learned Sanskrit scholars. In his poetry work Rasa Gangadhar Jagannath has named his father as his teacher. His poetic work includes Rasa Gangadhar, Ganga Lahari (also known as Piyush lahari) Kawita kamini, Yamuna lahari, Bhamini Vilas, Vishnu Lahari, Asaph-Lahari etc. Jagannath Pandit was the grandson of Gusainji Vithalnath-Son of Vallabhacharya of Vallabh sampraday (Daughter's Son) "Ganga Lahari" is a composition of 52 Sanskrit Shlokas by Jagannath Pandit has historic importance. The Great man was accepted as her spiritual guide by princess Lavangika, Daughter of emperor shah jehan and the prince Dara Shukoh was friendly with him to learn more of Sanskrit and Hindu culture. Both these facts were mistaken by the citizens in Delhias an ordinary earthly love story. The emperor asked Jagannath Pandit to accept

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

as his religion and marry his daughter which was not acceptable to Jagannath. He started fasting on the banks of river ganga and every day he would compose a shloka to pray the godly and motherly river Ganga. On completion of every shloka the waters rose by a step by step for 52 days (Jeshthha shuddha 1 to 10 are the days called "Ganga Dashahara) in

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

calendar, and at the end, Pandit Raj offered himself into the river and ended his life nobly.(1670) The band of 52 shlokas is available now also with its meaning and is known as a very beautiful piece of poetry of the old times. The story according to Kirtan Sampraday is a little different. There was a conspiracy to convert Jagannath Pandit to Islam. Jagannath called to play chess with the emperor Shaha Jahan. He introduced him to his daughter and asked him to compose a poem on her beauty. As soon as he did this, the emperor said that since you are so enchanted with her beauty, you marry her. This indirectly meant conversion. The other option was simply to deny the Emperor's order and face death. Jagannath was smart and said that he will abide by the royal wish, however, the wedding would be in accordance to his family rituals. With this intelligent answer and his friends like Dara Shuko, he avoided conversion. The Emperor awarded him one village as wedding gift. However, later when Aurangzeb took over Sultant of Delhi, he gave his option to accept Islam or leave the court. Pandit Jagannath left Delhi and stayed in Varanasi in his final days with his wife Lavangi.

Work

# Bhaminivilasa - a collection of miscellaneous verses composed on different occasions. # "Rasa Gangadharam" (Alankara Sastram), # Ganga Lahari, # Five Vilasams

The Bhāminī-vilāsa

The Bhāminī-vilāsa is divided into four chapters, each called ''vilāsa'', and containing about a hundred verses (in the manner of a ''śataka''). Only two of them, namely the first and the last, have been published. Many of the verses are infused with personal touches serving as the poet's memoirs. The collection is named after the poet's first wife Bhamini whom he had lost at a very young age before he launched into his scholarly career. The number of verses per chapter varies between manuscripts: * The first, ''anyokti-vilāsa'', contains allegorical (''anyokti'') stanzas about life in general (''nīti''). It has 100 to 130 stanzas. * The second, ''śṛṅgāra-vilāsa'', contains love poems. It has 101 to 184 stanzas. * The third, ''karuṇā-vilāsa'', contains laments mourning the death of the beautiful lady (Bhāminī). * The fourth, ''śānta-vilāsa'', contains verses on renunciation (''vairagya''). It has 31 to 46 stanzas.

Example verses

; From the ''Rasa-gaṅgādhara'' ; From the ''Bhāminī-vilāsa''

Devotional poems

He composed five devotional poems, each of whose names contains the word ''laharī'' ("a large wave"): * ''Amṛta-laharī'', in praise of the river Yamunā, 10 stanzas long, * ''Sudhā-laharī'', in praise of

Sūrya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...

the sun god, 30 stanzas long, * ''Gaṅgā-laharī'', addressed to the river Gaṅgā, 53 stanzas long, * ''Karuṇā-laharī'', in praise of

Kṛṣṇa Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one of ...

(Krishna), 60 stanzas long, and * ''Lakṣmī-laharī'', in praise of the goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

, 40 stanzas long.

As a scholar

He was a junior contemporary of

Appayya Dīkṣita Appayya Dikshita ( IAST ', often "Dikshitar"), 1520–1593 CE, was a performer of yajñas as well as an expositor and practitioner of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy but with a focus on Shiva or Shiva Advaita. Life Appayy ...

of whom he wrote disparagingly. He wrote the ''Kaustubha-khaṇḍana'', criticizing

Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita Bhattoji Dikshita was a 17th-century Maharashtrian Sanskrit grammarian, author of the , literally "Illumination of the established (position)". He was active in a revival of the grammatical methods of Pāṇini, in his work arranging Pāṇini's su ...

's ''Śabda-kaustubha'', and ''Prauḍha-manoramā-khaṇḍana'' (also called ''manoramā-kuca-mardana'') criticizing the explanations of his ''Prauḍha-manoramā''. Other minor works attributed to him include the ''Sāra-pradīpikā'', a commentary on the ''Sārasvata Prakriyā'' or ''Sārasvata vyākaraṇa'', an ancient grammatical work attributed to Narendra.

Popular culture

There is a movie on Jagannatha Pandita Rayalu in Tamil (1946) and Hindi (1950). A Marathi musical drama was also a historic work of Shri Vidyadhar Gokhale in Mumbai in 1960. There are few more art epics on "jagannath Pandit". A Marathi drama by Shri

Vidyadhar Gokhale Vidyadhar S. Gokhale (Devanagari: विद्याधर गोखले) (4 January 1924 – 26 September 1996) was a political activist, a Marathi playwright, and an editor of a Marathi newspaper, ''Loksatta'' (लोकसत्ता), fro ...

named "Pandit Raj Jagannath" Famous musical stage show was performed by leading artists Shri

Bhalchandra Pendharkar Bhalchandra Pendharkar (25 November 1921 – 11 August 2015) was a 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 ...

, Prasad Sawkar, Mama Pendse,

Chittaranjan Kolhatkar Chittaranjan Cintamanrav Kolhatkar ( mr, चित्तरंजन चिंतामणराव कोल्हटकर; 15 January 1923 – 25 October 2009) was an Indian film and theatre actor. Born in 1923 in the Amravati district of Ma ...

Chandrakant Gokhale Chandrakant Raghunath Gokhale (7 January 1921 – 20 June 2008) was a well-known veteran Marathi film and stage actor and singer. Gokhale's mother, Kamlabai Gokhale (nee Kamlabai Kamat) was the first female child actor of the Indian cinema. Gok ...

, Master Dattaram and Mangala Sanjhagiri and others under the famous banner of "Lalitkaladarsha" about 50 years back.(9-Oct 1960) The film ''

Lavangi ''Lavangi'' is a 1946 Indian Tamil-language film directed and produced by Y. V. Rao and written by P. R. Narayanan. It stars Y. V. Rao, Kumari Rukmani, B. R. Panthulu, B. Jayamma, K. Sarangapani, K. R. Chellam and T. R. Ramachandran. The film ...

'' based on Jagannatha pandita Rayalu was released in 1946 Lavangi
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