Jiva Gosvami
1517 CE–1608 CE · Bengal (Rāmakeli, in the Gauḍa region; traditional); active chiefly in Vṛndāvana
c. 1517–c. 1608 CE (traditional/scholarly estimate; exact dates uncertain).
Jīva Gosvāmī was the principal systematic theologian of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, the Bengali devotional tradition that arose around Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and one of the celebrated "Six Gosvāmīs" who settled at Vṛndāvana to develop its scriptural and ritual foundations. The nephew of the senior Gosvāmīs Rūpa and Sanātana, he was an immensely learned author whose works gave the tradition its theological architecture. His masterwork is the Ṣaṭ Sandarbha ("Six Treatises"), a systematic exposition of Gauḍīya theology drawn largely from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, covering the nature of God, the soul, and devotion (bhakti). He also wrote on Sanskrit grammar and poetics. He is conventionally dated to roughly 1517–1608, though exact dates are uncertain, and is remembered as the figure who consolidated the intellectual heritage of the early Gauḍīya movement.
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Bengal (Rāmakeli, in the Gauḍa region; traditional); active chiefly in Vṛndāvana
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About Bengal (Rāmakeli, in the Gauḍa region; traditional); active chiefly in Vṛndāvana
Jīva Gosvāmī (c. 1513–1598), the systematic theologian of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, was born at Rāmakeli in the Gauḍa region of Bengal (Malda district, present-day West Bengal). He spent most of his life in Vṛndāvana, where he was one of the Six Gosvāmīs and developed the theology of acintya-bhedābheda. The coordinates here mark Vṛndāvana, his chief place of activity.
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