How does the Bhavanga State relate to the Jhanas?
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Jhana is more than just the giving up of the five senses. Each of the jhanas is the result of very strong samadhi, and has specific factors that go along with it. For example, the first jhana has five factors: rapture, pleasure, initial application of mind, sustained application of mind, and oneness of mind. As one goes deeper into the second jhana, one leaves behind initial application and sustained application of mind, and so on.
Bhavanga is very different than this however. Bhavanga is like a blank slate. All it has are the mental factors that are necessary for mind to be there and nothing else. It only occurs in the space between other kinds of mindstate. None of the jhana factors are present at all, and there isn't even any meaningful degree of awareness in it.
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While doing some reading I noticed the following which may shed more light on you question. Pa Auk Sayadaw and Tina Rasmussen teach that returning to bhavanga-consciousness between jhana states allows a review of the jhana factors that were present in the jhana which, according to them, is not possible when absorbed in jhana:
You examine the bhavanga with the wisdom eye after exiting jhana and before entering the next higher jhana to determine which jhana factors are, or were, present. It is impossible to examine the jhana factors or bhavanga while in jhana because in jhana there is no volition or thinking. When you are checking the jhana factors, you are in access concentration, not absorbtion. Practicing the Jhanas by Tina Rasmussen (p.77)
Pa Auk Sayadaw - Mindfulness of Breathing (p.7):
Once one can maintain the first jhana for about two or three hours, one may try to discern the five jhana factors. Whenever one emerges from jhana, one discerns the area in one's heart where the bhavanga-consciousness rests: that is the heart-materiality. The bhavanga-consciousness is bright and luminous, and looks like a mirror in the heart: that is the mind-door. And when one discerns the mind-door, one will see the anapana-patibhaga-nimitta appear there. Then one discerns the five jhana factors.
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