Ś rī Navadvīpa-maṇḍala is supreme among all holy places of the world. Like Śrī Vṛndāvana, it covers an area of thirty-two square miles, and is shaped like an eight-petaled lotus flower. The center of that lotus is Śrī Antardvīpa, the core of which is
Śrī Māyāpura. To the north of Śrī Māyāpura is Śrī Sīmantadvīpa,
where a temple of Śrī Sīmantinī Devī is situated. To the north
of this temple is the village of Bilva-puṣkariṇī, and to the south lies Brāhmaṇa-puṣkariṇī. That area, which is located in the
northern section of Śrī Navadvīpa is commonly referred to as
Simuliyā.
At the time of Śrī Mahāprabhu, Simuliyā was the residence of
many learned paṇḍitas. The father of Śacīdevī, Śrī Nīlāmbara
Cakravartī Mahāśaya, had also lived in this village. Now, not far from where Nīlāmbara Cakravatī’s house still stood, lived a
Vedic brāhmaṇa named Vrajanātha Bhaṭṭācārya. Vrajanātha
had been brilliant from his childhood. He had studied in a
Sanskrit school in Bilva-puṣkariṇī, and he had become such a superior scholar of the science of logic (nyāya-śāstra) that his
ingenious and innovative arguments embarrassed and intimidated
all the renowned scholars of Bilva-puṣkariṇī, Brāhmaṇa-puṣkariṇī, Māyāpura, Godruma, Madhyadvīpa, Āmraghaṭṭa, Samudra-garh,