Jagannatha Panditaraja

Jagannātha (1590-1670), also known as Jagannātha Paṇḍita or Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja, or Jagannatha Pandita Rayalu, was a poet, musician 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 from Khandrika (Upadrasta - Supervisor of the sacrificial rites) family and a junior contemporary of Emperor Akbar. As a literary theorist or rhetorician, he is known for Rasagaṅgādhara, a work on poetic theory. He was granted the title of Paṇḍitarāja by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, at whose court he received patronage.

Birth and personal life
Jagannatha was born (in 1590 AD or 1572 AD ) in an Andhra Veginadu Brahmin family and there is a belief that he belongs to Munikhanda Agraharam (present-day Munganda), Amalapuram Taluk, Andhra Pradesh, India. His parents were Perambhatta (Perubhatta) and Laxmi.

Jagannatha married his close cousin,Kameswari Cherukuri(d.1625) of Bellampudi Village,(P. Gannavaram mandal, East Godavari) and had a son by name Madhava Bhattu. He lost his wife at an early age.

As per Prof. Sriramachandrudu, there is another tradition that Jagannatha was born near the village Davuluru, Tenali taluk of Guntur District, modern Andhra Pradesh. It is claimed that Ramachandrabhattu, the younger brother of Jagannatha received the village Davuluru as an inam in 1660 AD from Ajahassen Qutub Shah of Golkonda who ruled from 1658-1687. There are many people from the Upadrasta family residing near Davuluru and they claim that those in the Godavari district were emigrants from this village.

Prof. Athavale cites a biography named Sampradaya Kalpadruma authored by some Vitthalanatha (Manaranjana Kavi), in which it has been mentioned that Jagannath Panditaraja was the grandson of Vitthalanatha(Gusainji) who in turn was the son of Vallabhacharya, the founder of the Krishna-centered Pushtimarg sect of Vaishnavism in the Braj (Vraja) region of India and the philosophy of Śuddhādvaita.

Based on the above accounts, it is difficult to fix the birthplace of Jagannatha and he might not have lived in Andhra at all or would have migrated at a very young age to Varanasi.

In the introductory verse of Rasagangadhara, Jagannatha named his father Perubhatta as his teacher who was proficient in all branches of learning. Except for Vyakarana, which he studied under SesaViresvara, Jagannatha studied all other Sastras under his father. Bhaṭṭabhaṭṭāraka Perubhatta studied Vedanta under Jnanendra Bhiksu, Nyaya, and Vaisesika under Maheswara Pandita, and Mimamsa under one Deva ( who according to Nagesabhatta was none other than Khandadevamisra(d.1665) and Vyakarana under SesaVireswara, the son of SesaKrsna and the classmate of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita(1550-1630).

Perubhatta is also referred to as Raghunadhabhatta in Pranabharanam and as Jogesvarasuri in a commentary on Bhaminivilasa by Jagannatha's grandson Mahadeva Suri(son of Madhava Diksita). Jagannatha lived in Varanasi, India, and served in the courts of the Mughal emperors Jahangir(1569-1627) and Shah Jahan(1592-1666). He was also at Raja Prana Narayan’s (King of Cooch Behar who ruled from 1632-1665 AD) court in Kamarupa (modern Assam) for some time and might have spent some time at Maharana Jagat Singh I's(1607 – 10 April 1652) court too, but continuous royal patronage seems to have eluded him. His poetic work includes Rasa Gangadhara, Ganga Lahari (also known as Piyush lahari) Kawita kamini, Yamuna lahari, Bhamini Vilas, Vishnu Lahari, Asaph-Lahari etc.

"Ganga Lahari" is a composition of 52 Sanskrit Shlokas by Jagannath Pandit and has historic importance. The Great Man was accepted as her spiritual guide by Princess Lavangika, the Daughter of the emperor Shah Jahan, and prince Dara Shikoh was friendly with him to learn more about Sanskrit and Hindu culture. Both these facts were mistaken by the citizens in Delhi as an ordinary earthly love story.

The emperor asked Jagannath Pandit to accept Islam 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 step by step for 52 days (Jeshthha shuddha 1 to 10 are the days called "Ganga Dashahara) in Hindu 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

 * 1) Bhaminivilasa - a collection of miscellaneous verses composed on different occasions.
 * 2) "Rasa Gangadharam" (Alankara Sastram),
 * 3) Ganga Lahari,
 * 4) 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
"The Retort "Small-waisted girl why are you so thin?" "Why do you concern yourself with other people's affairs?" "Tell me nonetheless, and give me joy." "Go away, traveller, your wife will tell you.""
 * From the Rasa-gaṅgādhara

- Translated by J. M. Masson

"A Word of Warning My soul, I tell you, watch out. Don't take up with that cowherd. Whose skin is the hue of fresh rain clouds, the one who pastures His herd in Vrindavana. He's shrewd. He'll charm you first with his smile, Then his looks. Your senses will fail, and then oblivion."
 * From the Bhāminī-vilāsa

- Translated by Vidya Niwas Mishra, Leonard Nathan and Sachchidananda Vatsyayan

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 the sun god, 30 stanzas long,
 * Gaṅgā-laharī, addressed to the river Gaṅgā, 53 stanzas long,
 * Karuṇā-laharī, in praise of Kṛṣṇa (Krishna), 60 stanzas long, and
 * Lakṣmī-laharī, in praise of the goddess Lakshmi, 40 stanzas long.

As a scholar
Jagannātha was a junior contemporary of Appayya Dīkṣita(1520-1593) of whom he wrote disparagingly. He wrote the Kaustubha-khaṇḍana, criticizing Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita'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.

Students of Jagannatha Panditaraja
Panditaraja had many disciples during his lifetime. One amongst them was Narayanabhatta of his own sect and the other is Sri kulapatimisra who belonged to the Mathura-Chaturvedi family of Agra. He was a court poet in the kingdom of Jayapuur under the patronage of Sriramasimhaji.

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 named "Pandit Raj Jagannath" Famous musical stage show was performed by leading artists Shri Bhalchandra Pendharkar, Prasad Sawkar, Mama Pendse, Chittaranjan Kolhatkar, Chandrakant Gokhale, Master Dattaram and Mangala Sanjhagiri and others under the famous banner of "Lalitkaladarsha" about 50 years back.(9-Oct 1960)

The film Lavangi based on Jagannatha pandita Rayalu was released in 1946

Further reading and resources

 * Gangalahari Stotra. neelakanth publications. 1643,Sadashiv Peth, Pune Maharashtra India.
 * Gangalahari stotra with Parady shloka by Waman Pandit. Saddharma prakashan.Thane Maharashtra India.
 * Marathi Drama Panditraj Jagannath by Vidyadhar Gokhale.
 * A Hindi movie of 1961 also presents some of the Sanskrit shlokas music composed by late shri Vasant Desai.
 * Gangalahari Stotra. neelakanth publications. 1643,Sadashiv Peth, Pune Maharashtra India.
 * Gangalahari stotra with Parady shloka by Waman Pandit. Saddharma prakashan.Thane Maharashtra India.
 * Marathi Drama Panditraj Jagannath by Vidyadhar Gokhale.
 * A Hindi movie of 1961 also presents some of the Sanskrit shlokas music composed by late shri Vasant Desai.