The present Navadvipa-dhama is but a part of the whole of Navadvipa. Navadvipa means "nine islands." These nine islands, which occupy an area of land estimated at thirty-two square miles, are surrounded by different branches of the Ganges. In all nine of those islands of the Navadvipa area there are different places for cultivating devotional service. It is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.5.23) that there are nava-vidha bhakti, nine different activities of devotional service:

There are different islands in the Navadvipa area for cultivation of these nine varieties of devotional service. They are as follows: (1) Antardvipa, (2) Simantadvipa, (3) Godrumadvipa, (4) Madhyadvipa, (5) Koladvipa, (6) Rtudvipa, (7) Jahnudvipa, (8) Modadruma-dvipa and (9) Rudradvipa. According to the settlement map, our ISKCON Navadvipa center is situated on the Rudradvipa island. Below Rudradvipa, in Antardvipa, is Mayapur. There Sri Jagannatha Misra, the father of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, used to reside. In all these different islands, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as a young man, used to lead His sankirtana party. He thus inundated the entire area with the waves of love of Krsna.