[1] He was a Telugu Brahmin from Khandrika (Upadrasta - Supervisor of the sacrificial rites) family and a junior contemporary of Emperor Akbar.
Jagannatha married his close cousin,Kameswari Cherukuri(d.1625) of Bellampudi Village,(P. Gannavaram mandal, East Godavari) and had a son by name Madhava Bhattu.
As per Prof. Sriramachandrudu, there is another tradition that Jagannatha was born near the village Davuluru, Tenali taluk of Guntur District, modern Andhra Pradesh.
It is claimed that Ramachandrabhattu, the younger brother of Jagannatha received the village Davuluru as an inam in 1660 AD from Ajahassen Qutub Shah of Golkonda who ruled from 1658-1687.
Prof. Athavale cites a biography named Sampradaya Kalpadruma authored by some Vitthalanatha (Manaranjana Kavi), in which it has been mentioned that Jagannath Panditaraja was the grandson of Vitthalanatha(Gusainji) who in turn was the son of Vallabhacharya, the founder of the Krishna-centered Pushtimarg sect of Vaishnavism in the Braj (Vraja) region of India and the philosophy of Śuddhādvaita.
Based on the above accounts, it is difficult to fix the birthplace of Jagannatha and he might not have lived in Andhra at all or would have migrated at a very young age to Varanasi.
In the introductory verse of Rasagangadhara, Jagannatha named his father Perubhatta as his teacher who was proficient in all branches of learning.
Bhaṭṭabhaṭṭāraka Perubhatta studied Vedanta under Jnanendra Bhiksu, Nyaya, and Vaisesika under Maheswara Pandita, and Mimamsa under one Deva ( who according to Nagesabhatta was none other than Khandadevamisra(d.1665) and Vyakarana under SesaVireswara, the son of SesaKrsna and the classmate of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita(1550-1630).
Perubhatta is also referred to as Raghunadhabhatta in Pranabharanam[5] and as Jogesvarasuri in a commentary on Bhaminivilasa by Jagannatha's grandson Mahadeva Suri(son of Madhava Diksita).
The Great Man was accepted as her spiritual guide by Princess Lavangika, the Daughter of the emperor Shah Jahan, and prince Dara Shikoh was friendly with him to learn more about Sanskrit and Hindu culture.
The collection is named after the poet's first wife Bhamini whom he had lost at a very young age before he launched into his scholarly career.
He composed five devotional poems, each of whose names contains the word laharī ("a large wave"):[3] Jagannātha was a junior contemporary of Appayya Dīkṣita(1520-1593)[7]: 348 of whom he wrote disparagingly.
A Marathi drama by Shri Vidyadhar Gokhale named "Pandit Raj Jagannath" Famous musical stage show was performed by leading artists Shri Bhalchandra Pendharkar, Prasad Sawkar, Mama Pendse, Chittaranjan Kolhatkar, Chandrakant Gokhale, Master Dattaram and Mangala Sanjhagiri and others under the famous banner of "Lalitkaladarsha" about 50 years back.