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Madhusūdana Sarasvatī

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī

1540 CE · Bengal (born in the Faridpur region)

c. 1540–1640 CE (16th–17th c.), approximate

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, a Bengali Brāhmaṇa who settled in Varanasi, was one of the most formidable Advaita philosophers of the early modern period. His Advaitasiddhi is a monumental work of polemical logic answering the Dvaita philosopher Vyāsatīrtha's Nyāyāmṛta, defending Śaṅkara's non-dualism with the full apparatus of Navya-Nyāya logic. Remarkably, he combined this dialectical rigor with deep devotional Vaiṣṇavism, writing the Bhagavad-Gītā commentary Gūḍhārtha-dīpikā and the Bhakti-rasāyana, and arguing that loving devotion to Kṛṣṇa and the realization of non-dual Brahman are ultimately compatible. He flourished in the 16th–17th centuries (roughly 1540–1640).

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Bengal (born in the Faridpur region)

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Traditional birthplace of Madhusūdana Sarasvatī.

About Bengal (born in the Faridpur region)

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī (c. 1540–1640), the Advaita Vedānta philosopher and Krishna devotee, was born into a Bengali Brahmin family in a village of the Faridpur area—in the Kotalipara region of present-day Gopalganj district, Bangladesh. He later settled in Varanasi as a leading expositor of Advaita.

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