Srila Jahnava Mata

Srila Jahnava Mata, also known as Jahnava Devi, was the younger of the two wives of Nityananda Prabhu. In the decades after 1534, she became the acknowledged head of the entire Gaudiya Vaishnava movement. She held no formal post, and nobody in the society around her had held such a place before. Sixteenth-century Bengal did not expect a widow to lead anything, let alone a religious movement full of brahmana men. Yet she did lead it, as its acknowledged head, and no source shows that anyone at the time objected. Srila Prabhupada himself said of her, plainly, that she "was acharya" and that she was "controlling the whole Gaudiya Vaishnava community."

A Daughter of the Sarakhela Family #

Jahnava was the younger daughter of Suryadasa Sarakhela, a Vaishnava of Shaligrama, near Navadwip. He had grown wealthy serving as an accountant to the Muslim government of Gauda. Her elder sister was Vasudha. Her uncle was Gauridasa Pandita, one of the twelve gopalas and among the most fervent of Nityananda Prabhu's followers. Another uncle, Krishnadasa Sarakhela, is named beside Suryadasa in the Chaitanya-charitamrita itself as a reservoir of love of Godhead. The exact year and place of Jahnava's own birth are not settled in the surviving sources. Birth and Family gives those details. It also explains that the tradition identifies her, together with Vasudha, with an eternal associate of Krishna in Vraja.

That associate is Ananga-manjari. Kavi Karnapura records both views in his Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika (verse 66) and accepts both:

kecit śrī-vasudhā-devīṁ kalāv api vivṛṇvate
anaṅga mañjarīṁ kecij jāhnavīṁ ca pracakṣate
ubhayaṁ tu samīcīnaṁ pūrva nyāyāt satāṁ matam

"Some say that Srimati Vasudha-devi is the incarnation of Srimati Ananga-manjari, and others say that Srimati Jahnavi-devi is the incarnation of Srimati Ananga-manjari. In truth, both opinions are correct. They are both incarnations of Srimati Ananga-manjari." (Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 66)

Srila Prabhupada gives the same identity in his purport to Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi 11.21: "She is described in the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (66) as Anaṅga-mañjarī of Vṛndāvana."

Marriage to Nityananda Prabhu #

Suryadasa gave both his daughters, Vasudha and Jahnava, to Nityananda Prabhu in marriage. Nityananda Prabhu's own account of the wedding tells that story in full, from Nityananda's side. The same story is told again here, from Jahnava's own side, on Marriage and the Two Wives of Nityananda Prabhu. After the wedding the family settled at Khardaha, which became the headquarters of the whole Bengal mission. Vasudha gave birth to a son, Virabhadra, and a daughter, Ganga Devi, and died not long afterward. Jahnava had no children of her own. She raised both of them as her own, and Virabhadra in particular became her most cherished disciple.

The Acharya of Gaudiya Vaishnavism After 1534 #

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared in 1534. Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Acharya and Srivasa Thakura all followed him within a few years. The movement suddenly lost every figure it had been built around. Jahnava, Nityananda's widow, took up the leadership that had been left empty. She was not a leader in name only. She gave diksha, and the sources name the disciples. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes in his Anubhasya that "Virabhadra Gosani was the direct son of Srila Nityananda Prabhu and a disciple of Jahnava Devi," and Srila Prabhupada quotes this line in full in his purport to Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 11.8. Bhakti-ratnakara (chapter 13) names two more disciples, Srimati and Narayani. They were the daughters of Yadunandana Acharya, whom "Sri Jahnava happily accepted... as her disciples" on the day they married Viracandra. Prema-vilasa (vilasas 15 and 20) and Haridasa Dasa's Gaudiya-vaishnava-abhidhana say the same. This is what her guruship meant in practice. It is recorded in the sources, not guessed.

The other half is not recorded, and it is better to say so than to fill the gap. No source names who gave Jahnava her own diksha. The sources say nothing on that point. What is recorded instead is the general order Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave to every one of His followers: yare dekha, tare kaha 'krishna'-upadesha, amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desha, "instruct everyone you meet to follow the orders of Lord Krishna... in this way become a spiritual master" (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 7.128). Narottama Dasa Thakura, Shrinivasa Acharya and Shyamananda Prabhu were the three main preachers of the movement's second generation. They accepted her as the foremost Vaishnava in all of Bengal and took her guidance as shiksha. Each of them had taken his formal diksha from someone else: Narottama from Lokanatha Goswami, Shrinivasa from Gopala Bhatta Goswami, Shyamananda from Hridaya Chaitanya. Srila Prabhupada put the same distinction in his own way: Jahnava Devi "was accepted as" acharya, he said, "but she did not declare." The fuller story of how that came to be, including two direct statements from Srila Prabhupada on the subject, is told on Leading the Movement After 1534.

Presiding at the Kheturi Festival #

The clearest public sign of her standing came at the festival Narottama Dasa Thakura organized at Kheturi. That event is already described from Narottama's side on The Kheturi Festival. Jahnava was invited, given the highest honor of the gathering, and asked on its opening day to take charge of the whole affair. She directed the kirtana and oversaw the worship of the six Deities installed there. She cooked the first offering with her own hands and ate only after every guest had been fed. The details of what she said and did at Kheturi, with their sources, are given on Presiding at the Kheturi Festival.

Journeys to Vraja and the Deity of Jahnava Radhika #

More than once in her life Jahnava traveled from Bengal to Vrindavana. Rupa Goswami explained scripture to her there. Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, the most severe and reclusive of the Six Goswamis, spent a great deal of time showing her the ground at Radha-kunda. More than any other single person, she is credited with binding the Bengali wing of the movement to the Vrindavana wing, at a time when the two could easily have drifted apart. A Deity still worshipped today at Vrindavana's Gopinatha temple carries her name. The full account, with its specific stops and named devotees, is on Journeys to Vrindavana and Jahnava Radhika.

Disappearance and Worship Today #

Jahnava Mata disappeared on the ninth day of the bright fortnight of Vaishakha, at Vrindavana. No surviving source recorded the exact year. She is worshipped today beside Nityananda Prabhu in temples throughout Bengal. At Ekachakra she stands, as a Deity, on the right-hand side of the Deity of Banka Raya. Gaudiya Vaishnavas do not usually describe her as a reformer, and she never presented herself that way. But the tradition has always remembered openly what actually happened. In the middle of the sixteenth century, a woman held the acknowledged spiritual leadership of a movement of brahmana men. She initiated disciples, presided over its central gathering, and is credited with binding its Bengali wing to its Vrindavana wing. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself gives the reason. The qualification for guru is knowledge of Krishna, and nothing else. "Whether one is a brahmana, a sannyasi or a shudra, he can become a spiritual master if he knows the science of Krishna," Chaitanya-charitamrita records Him teaching (Madhya-lila 8.128). Srila Prabhupada quoted this very verse when he was asked directly whether Jahnava Mata could really have been guru. That question is taken up in full on Leading the Movement After 1534. More detail about her worship today, and Srila Prabhupada's own comments on what her example means, is on Legacy and Worship Today.