Sant Jnaneshwar

01The children of a sannyasi

His father Vitthalpant had taken sannyasa and then, at his guru’s bidding, returned to married life. The Brahmins of Alandi shut the family out, and the parents gave up their lives in the river hoping the children would be accepted. Nivrittinath, Jnanadev, Sopan and Muktabai went to Paithan for a certificate of purity. The Varkari account says Jnaneshwar made a buffalo recite the Vedas there, and the pandits relented. Nivrittinath, the eldest, a Nath yogi initiated by Gahininath, became his guru.

02The Jnaneshwari and Alandi

At Nevasa, leaning on a temple pillar still shown to pilgrims, he gave the Bhavartha Dipika, the Jnaneshwari, some nine thousand ovis on the Gita, written down by Sacchidananda Baba; it closes by naming Shaka 1212, that is 1290 CE. The Amritanubhava and the Haripath followed. He travelled with Namdev to the tirthas of the north. In 1296, on Kartika Vadya Trayodashi, he went down into a chamber at Alandi and asked that it be sealed. The Varkaris walk from Alandi to Pandharpur with his padukas every Ashadha.

Dynasty · c. 1187–1317 CESeuna Yadavas of DevagiriThe Seunas claimed descent from the Yadu line of Shri Krishna. Bhillama V built Devagiri around 1187, and his heirs ruled the first great Marathi-speaking kingdom until Alauddin Khalji’s armies broke it.Read →