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Vasudeva Bhattacarya was born in a Bengali brahmana family in Navadvipa. His father was the famous logician Narahari Visarada Bhattacarya and indeed the entire Bhattacarya family were all eminent Nyayanikas. Narahari’s younger brother, Srinatha Bhattacarya wrote commentaries on the pratyaksa and anuman sections of Gangesa Upadhyaya’s famous Nyaya treatise Tattva-cintamani.
From a young age Vasudeva was trained by his father in Sanskrit grammar and literature. When he was 25 he travelled to Mithila to study Navya-nyaya (a new system of logic) under the famous Nyayanika Paksadhara Misra. Paksadhara admitted him into his academy and after finishing his studies he was given the title ‘Sarvabhauma’ (conqueror). However, the logicians of Mithila did not allow outsiders to copy their texts, therefore Vasudeva memorised a large part of Gangesa Upadhyaya’s Tattva-cintamani and almost the whole of Nyaya-kusumanjali.
After a brief stay in Benares where he studied Vedanta and Mimamsa, Vasudeva Sarvabhauma returned to Navadvipa where he opened his own school and taught Navya-nyaya. He soon became the foremost logician of his time and hundreds of students floscked to his academy to learn the Navya-nyaya system.
When the logicians of Mithila discovered that Sarvabhauma was teaching Navya-nyaya from their textbooks, they sent assassins to kill him. Vasudeva fled to Puri where he was protected and patronized by the king of Orissa, Maharaja Purusottamadeva (1465-1496) and later his son Prataparudradeva (1496-1539). Vasudeva was the court scholar at the court of the kings of Puri.
While living in Puri, Vasudeva Sarvabhauma met Sri Caitanya and after being defeated by him in debate, accepted the philosophy of Acintya-bhedabheda as deliniated by Caitanya and his followers. Towards the end of his life Vasudeva Sarvabhauma returned to Navadvipa and passed his last days there.
Vasudeva's eldest son, Jalesvara, and his grandson, Svapnesvaracarya, were also famous logicians. The eminent Logician Raghunatha Siromani of Nabadvipa, was his student.
It is not certain how many works were written by Vasudeva Sarvabhuma. Some of his most important books are as follows”
*Anumanamani-pariksa – a commentary on Gangesa Upadhyaya's Tattva-cintamani.
*Advaitama-karanda - a commentary on the Vedanta;
*Tattva-dipika – a work expounding acintya-bhedabheda philosophy.
*Samasvad
*Sarvabhauma-nirukti – a work on grammatical meters.
* Sabdamani-pariksa
Vasdeva Sarvabhauma also authored a number of small works glorifying Vaisnava philosophy.
