Lakṣmīdhara

Possibly a native of Orissa, Lakṣmīdhara is most well-known in the history of Advaita Vedānta for his short verse treatise the Advaitamakaranda. Equally popular, however, was his Bhagavannāmakaumudī, a monograph on the power of reciting God's name. Beyond its theological interest in the purifying power of devotional utterances, the Bhagavannāmakaumudī argued for the superlative authority of the genre of purāṇa, especially the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in the language of Mīmāṃsā. It also contained a skeletal account of bhaktirasa, or the aesthetic sentiment of religious devotion. His writing thus also became influential for the Vaiṣṇava Vedāntins of Bengal and Brindavan, making its way into the works of Rūpa and Jīva Gosvāmī. Lakṣmīdhara also wrote a commentary on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa called the Amṛtataraṅgiṇī. Another commentary he wrote on the Śrutigītā, a section of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (10.87) also called the Vedastuti, circulated separately with the title Nayamañjarī. Both these latter works, however, are largely found in the manuscript libraries of Kerala, and the legacy of his commentary continues among writers in that region. Lakṣmīdhara's work appears to represent a tradition of commentary on the Bhāgavata that completely sidestepped that of his more popular contemporary, Śrīdhara Svāmī.