Madhusūdana Sarasvatī (c.1540–1640) was an Indian philosopher in the Advaita Vedānta tradition.

Madhusūdana was born in Bengal, and originally called Kamalanayana. He was educated in the Navya-Nyāya tradition, but became an Advaita sannyāsin, and moved to Varanasi in order to study Advaita. He gained as a patron the Emperor Akbar, and was a friend of the poet Tulsīdās. He led many symposia attended by both Hindu sādhus and Muslim mullāhs.

Madhusūdana wrote a number of works, all involving the defence and exposition of Advaita Vedānta, of which the largest and most respected is the Advaitasiddhi, which opposes the Dvaita Vedānta positions and arguments in Vyāsatīrtha's work Nyāyāmŗta. Madhusūdana also wrote at least nine other works, of which five were commentaries (on the Bhagavadgīta, part of the Bhāgavatapurāņa, and others).

Sources and further reading

Primary texts

• Advaitasiddhi ^*
• Siddhāntabindu
• ''Vedāntakalpalatikā

Secondary texts

• Karl H. Potter, "Madhusūdana Sarasvatī" (in Robert L. Arrington ^*. A Companion to the Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. ISBN 0-631-22967-1)
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, et al. ^*, History of Philosophy Eastern and Western: Volume One (George Allen & Unwin, 1952)

Advaitin philosophers | Bengali people