[1] Jñāneśvar was the second of the four children of Vitthal Govind Kulkarni and Rukmini, a pious couple from Apegaon near Paithan on the banks of the river Godavari.

In Alandi, about 30 km from Pune, Sidhopant, a local Yajurveda Brahmin was very much impressed with him and Vitthal married his daughter Rukmini.

After some time, getting permission from Rukmini, Vitthal went to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India, where he met Ramananda Swami and requested to be initiated into sannyas, lying about his marriage.

It is believed that later Vitthal and Rukmini ended their lives by jumping into the waters at Prayag where the river Ganges meets Yamuna, hoping that their children would be accepted into the society after their death.

Later, a farmer took them to live with his family, where Jñāneśvar translated the Bhagavad Gita into the Marathi language and performed many miracles; riding on a flying wall was the most famous of these.