Nabadwip City, West Bengal, India 5.6

Nabadwip,the birth place of Sri Chaitanya is a city under Municipal administration in the district of Nadia in West Bengal, (India). It is seated on the western bank of the Bhagirathi river. The Bhagirathi river originally flowed down the west of Nabadwip in the past, forming a natural boundary between the districts of Bardhaman and Nadia. With time it has shifted its course to where it is at present, cutting the city off from the rest of the Nadia district. It is considered to have been founded in 1063 AD, which served as the old capital of the Sena dynasty. It was a center of learning and philosophy in medieval India and is still noted for its traditional Sanskrit schools.The Navya Nyaya school of logic reached its peak with the efforts of some well known contemporary philosophers of Nabadwip. The great Vaishnava saint, social reformer and an important figure of the Bhakti movement, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533) was born here, for whose sake, this place has turned into an important center of pilgrimage for the Vaishnavs world wide as well as the Hindoos in general. Many devotees who adhere to the Gaudiya sect of Vaishnavism come to Nabadwip for pilgrimage on the auspicious occasion of the Birthday celebration of Shri Mahaprabhu on the Phalguni Purnima (i.e. on the Full moon day of the March every year), and for various festivals in relation to Leelas of Shri Mahaprabhu like Sri Nabadwip-mandala Parikrama and other festivities like Dol yatra, Ras purnima Gaura-purnima.


Prior to Gour, Nabadwip was the capital of Bengal Empire under the reign of Ballal Sen and Lakshman Sen, the famous rulers of the Sena Empire. They ruled Bengal from here in the period from 1159 to 1206.[4] In 1202, Nabadwip was attacked and invaded by Bakhtiyar Khilji who plundered Nabadwip. The Lakshman Sen, the old King, being afraid left the Capital. This victory paved the way for Muslim rule in Bengal.[5] Nabadwip and Nadia were great centres of learning and intellectual prowess. For five centuries, it was referred to as "Oxford of East


The name of the city "Nabadwip" is derived from the conjugation of the bengali words /naba/ (new) and /dwipa/ (island) meaning New-island. In the down stream of the river Ganga, the alluvial deposits carried over during its course that starts at the Himalayas, were gradually deposited, forming a new island which is present day's Nabadwip. The name Nabadwip and Nadia has the same connotation of the same geographical location flanked at west and north by the Ganga at earlier times. The claim that the name Nabadwip refers to an area comprising nine islets has no ground. There are many historical references in this respect. Actually the misconception around the nomenclature of the name "Nabadwip" arose since the publication of the book "Bhakti Ratnakar" of Narahari Chakraborty. Narahari Chakraborty's claim, however, is not supportable from the perspective of geographical definition of the term Island. He might have made-up the idea of "nine islands" since "naba" in Bengali also means 'nine'. Hence "Nabadwip" i.e. nine islands, namely Antardwip, Simantadwip, Rudradwip, Madhyadwip, Godrumdwip, Ritudwip, Jahnudwip, Modadrumdwip, and Koladwip. However again, it is to mention that all these islands are loosely scattered over a vast geographical area that the Historians do not approve of the idea as being "Nabadwip".