apare yajña-patnau śrī-jagadīśa-hiraṇyakau
ekādaśyāṁ yayor annaṁ prārthayitvā’ghasat prabhuḥ

The wives of the sacrificing Brahmins in Vraja took birth as Jagadish and Hiranya. The Lord (Mahaprabhu) asked for and ate their prasad on the Ekadasi day.
(Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā 192)

āsīd vraje chandrahāso nartako rasa-kovidaḥ
so’yaṁ nṛtya-vinodī śrī-jagadīśākhyaḥ paṇḍitaḥ

In Vraja there was a dancer named Chandrahasa who was very expert in the tasting of rasa. In Chaitanya-lila, he became Jagadish Pandit who also took great pleasure in dancing for the Lord.
(Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā 143)

Jagadish Pandit is simultaneously considered to be both Nityananda-sakha and Chaitanya-sakha, a branch both of Chaitanya as well as Nityananda Prabhu in the desire tree of devotion. He was born in the town of Guwahati (Pragjyotishpur) in east India. His father’s name was Kamalaksha Bhatta. Both of his parents were devotees of Vishnu. When they left the world, he came with his wife Duhkhini and his brother Hiranya to Mayapur on the shores of the Ganga where they built a home near that of Jagannath Mishra. Jagadish Pandit was a very close friend of Jagannath Mishra.

Jagadish and his wife Duhkhini had the same kind of parental affection for the little Nimai as Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi themselves. Duhkhini was like a mother to Him and even sometimes acted as His wet-nurse. Nimai, the son of Sachi, is none other than the son of Yashoda, the supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnate. It is not possible for anyone but an eternal associate of the Lord to have the good fortune to treat Him like a son in this way.

Before taking sannyas, Mahaprabhu ordered Jagadish Pandit to go to Nilachala to preach Krishna-bhakti and the religious practice of the age, Harinama-sankirtan. The son of Nanda, Śrī Kṛṣṇa and the son of Jagannath Mishra, Śrī Gaurasundara, are the same supreme divinity as Lord Jagannath. When Jagadish Pandit arrived in Puri, he went for Lord Jagannath’s darshan and melted with love when he saw Him. On his way back to Bengal, however, he felt extreme separation from Lord Jagannath. Thousands and thousands of people go on pilgrimage to Puri every single day. All of them take darshan of Lord Jagannath, but how many of them are overcome by feelings of separation when returning home? Perhaps once in a while some fortunate individual is able to feel such emotions. If one truly feels such pangs of separation, then this is a sign of Lord Jagannath’s mercy; if not, then one has not truly received the grace of the Lord.

Lord Jagannath saw Jagadish Pandit crying and so mercifully appeared to him in a dream and told him to take His vigraha and serve. Simultaneously, He appeared to the king of Orissa and ordered him that at the time of the nava-kalevara, when the wooden deity of Lord Jagannath is renewed, the outgoing form should be given to Jagadish Pandit. As a result of this dream, the king felt greatly honored to meet Jagadish Pandit and gave him Lord Jagannath’s outgoing form, which is known as the samādhi-stha-vigraha.

Jagadish Pandit prayed to Lord Jagannath, asking Him just how he could possibly carry the heavy figure of the deity all the way back to Bengal. Lord Jagannath answered him that for his sake He would become as light as a cork. Then Jagadish was to cover Him with a new cloth and then carry Him suspended at the end of a staff. Lord Jagannath further told him that he would have to make permanent arrangements to stay wherever He was set down on the ground. Jagadish Pandit Prabhu took the aid of two Brahmins to carry Lord Jagannath as far as the village of Jashora on the banks of the Ganges, near the town of Chakdaha. Jagadish Pandit left Lord Jagannath with one of the Brahmins and went to take his bath in the Ganges and to perform oblations of Ganga water. While he was gone, the Brahmin found that Lord Jagannath was suddenly becoming very heavy and that he was no longer able to hold Him up. When Jagadish Pandit came back from his bath, he saw Lord Jagannath sitting on the ground and realized that the Lord wanted to stay in that very spot.

Chakdaha is a historical site and an ancient holy place. During the Purāṇic age, it was known as Rathavarma. Sri Krishna’s son, Pradyumna, killed the demon Sambara there at the end of the Dvāparā age and since then it was known as Pradyumna-nagara. Later when Bhagiratha was bringing down the Ganga in order to save the Sāgara dynasty, the wheel of his chariot got stuck here. Thus the town has to come to be known as Chakradaha, which in time has been changed into Chakdaha. When the local people heard that the Lord Jagannath deity from Puri had come to stay in Jashora, they flocked there in thousands to seek His darshan. This is how Jagadish Pandit decided to remain in Jashora rather than return to his home in Mayapur.

Being attracted by Jagadish Pandit and his wife’s parental devotion, Nityananda Prabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited the Lord Jagannath temple in Jashora on two different occasions. The two Prabhus held sankirtan and a feast both times. As the Lord was about to leave Jashora to go to Puri, Duhkhini began to cry from the imminent separation so intensely that the Lord agreed to remain behind in the form of the Śrī Gaura-Gopal deity. In the course of the couple’s householder life, they had a son named Ramabhadra.