Jnanadeva

Jnanadeva (born 1275, Alandi, Yadavas, India—died 1296, Alandi) was a mystical poet-saint of Maharashtra and composer of the Bhavarthadipika (popularly known as the Jnaneshvari), a translation and commentary in Marathi oral verse on the Bhagavadgita.

Born into a family that had renounced society (sannyasi), Jnanadeva was considered an outcaste when his family returned to Alandi after years of living in seclusion. To reinstate their socioreligious status, the family obtained a certificate of purity from a Brahman (priest) council in the village of Paithan. Poems attributed to another Marathi poet-saint, Namdev, provide the oldest description of Jnanadeva’s life. Three collections of Namdev’s songs describe Jnanadeva’s birth and meeting with Namdev, their travels together through northern India to holy sites, and Jnanadeva’s entrance into what his followers believe to be a deathless state of meditation (samadhi) at Alandi. There is a small temple at Alandi where the saint is entombed.

Jnanadeva and Namdev are placed historically at the emergence of the Varkari (“Pilgrim”) devotional (bhakti) school, a 700-year-old sect particular to Maharashtra. The sect conducts annual circumambulatory pilgrimages throughout Maharashtra, culminating at the temple of Vitthal, an aspect of the god Vishnu, in Pandharpur in early July.

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Jnanadeva also composed the Amritanubhava (“Immortal Experience”), a work on the philosophy of the Upanishads (speculative texts that provide commentaries on the sacred scriptures, the Vedas), and the “Haripatha,” a song praising the name of Hari (Vishnu). His siblings—two brothers, Nivrittinath and Sopanadev, and particularly his sister, Muktabai—and his four children are also highly respected saints of the Varkari tradition.