{{Short description|Indian scholar}} {{distinguish|Janardhana Swamy}} {{Use Indian English|date=January 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}} {{Infobox Hindu leader | name = Janardan Swami | image = | alt = | religion = Hinduism | birth_place = Chalisgaon, Khandesh Sultanate | birth_date = c. 1504 | birth_name = | death_date = c. 1575 | death_place = Daulatabad, Ahmadnagar Sultanate | sect = | order = Anand Sampradaya | guru = Nagababa | disciples = Eknath, Ramajanardana,<ref name="Mokashi1987">{{cite book|author=D. B. Mokashi|title=Palkhi: An Indian Pilgrimage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qg_oxYC4PEMC&pg=PA110|date=1 July 1987|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-88706-462-3|pages=110–}}</ref> Janijanardana <ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUWIEfAY-mMC&pg=PA38|title=Hindu Spirituality: Postclassical and Modern|author1=K. R. Sundararajan|author2=Bithika Mukerji|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|year=2003|page=38|isbn=9788120819375}}</ref> | literary_works = }} '''Janardan Swami''' (c. 1504 - c. 1575) 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCJrUfVtZxoC&pg=PA145|title=A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Beginnings-1850|page=145|author=Sujit Mukherjee|publisher=Orient Blackswan|year=1998|isbn=9788125014539}}</ref><ref name="Berntsen1988">{{cite book|author=Maxine Berntsen|title=The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PDr-QF4YmYC&pg=PA98|date=1 January 1988|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-88706-662-7|pages=97–98}}</ref>
==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 ''Ashvalayana'' ''Sutra'', a collection of Indian texts detailing domestic rituals for householders. His parents belonged to the Shakala Shakha, a branch of the Rigvedic tradition.<ref>{{cite book|title=Origin and Development of Dattātreya Worship in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5bRAAAAMAAJ|author=Hariprasad Shivprasad Joshi|page=101|publisher=Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda|year=1965}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Origin and Development of Dattātreya Worship in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5bRAAAAMAAJ|author=Hariprasad Shivprasad Joshi|publisher=Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda|page=101|year = 1965}}</ref> He held the position of ''killedar'' or governor of the fort at Daulatabad.<ref name="Ranade1983">{{cite book|author=Ramchandra Dattatraya Ranade|title=Mysticism in India: The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Ql0PUJJPp8C&pg=PA214|date=1 January 1983|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-87395-669-7|pages=214–}}</ref><ref name="Sohoni2018">{{cite book|author=Pushkar Sohoni|title=The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late Medieval India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSaODwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|date=30 August 2018|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-83860-928-3|page=63}}</ref> According to legend, Dattatreya once held a conversation with Janardan Swami inside a cave within the fort perimeters at Daulatabad. It is believed that during one of his visits to Ankalakopa, the deity once again appeared before Janardan Swami as Narasimha Saraswati, who was an earlier saint and spiritual master, also 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Saints of Maharashtra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8UcqAAAAYAAJ|page=99|author=Savitribai Khanolkar|publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan|year=1978}}</ref>
Few details of his life are known. On one occasion, he instructed Eknath to embark on a pilgrimage. He accompanied his disciple until Trimbakeshwar, a Hindu pilgrimage town near Nashik, Maharashtra.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contributions of saints and seers to the music of India, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rn66AAAAIAAJ|author=Shantsheela Sathianathan|publisher=Kanishka Publishers, Distributors|year=1996|pages=438–439|isbn = 9788173911118}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73vbTVsPga0C|title=Mysticism in Maharashtra: Indian Mysticism|author=R. D. Ranade|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|year=1982|page=214|isbn=9788120805767}}</ref>
==See also== *Eknath, his principal disciple *Dnyaneshwar *Namdev
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *http://santeknath.org/jivangatha.html {{in lang|mr}} *Savitribai Khanolkar, ''Saints of Maharashtra'', published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, 3rd Edition, 2000. * https://www.santsahitya.in/sant-janardan/
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Janardanswamy}} Category:Marathi-language poets Category:Warkari Category:16th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians Category:Bhakti movement Category:16th-century Indian philosophers Category:16th-century Hindu religious leaders Category:Scholars from Maharashtra Category:People from Jalgaon