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Baladeva Vidyabhusana has the distinction of being known as the Vedanta-acarya of the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition.
The exact time and place of Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s birth are unknown. From the little information that we do have about his life, we can conjecture that he was born in the 17th century of the modern era. Though we do not know the name of the exact village where he took birth, it was likely in the Balesore district of Orissa, somewhere near Remuna. From the date given in his commentary on Rupa Goswami’s Stavamala, it is clear that Baladeva was still living after the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
We know that Baladeva studied in one of the villages of the Chilka Lake area in southern Orissa. There he learned grammar, poetics and logic, achieving expertise in all these subjects. He began his studies of Vedanta there, but in order to study the commentaries in greater depth, he went to Mysore. He was there particularly impressed by the logical consistency of the Madhva Dvaita commentary on the Vedanta-sutras and became a disciple of that school and began living in a Tattvavadi monastery. After taking sannyasa, he moved to Puri where he engaged many of the local scholars in debate, demonstrating the depth of his scholarship. His fame soon spread throughout the area.
Later, however, he met Radha Damodara Goswami, a Gaudiya Vaisnava scholar from Kanyakubja, under whose direction he studied Jiva Goswami’s Six Sandarbhas in great detail. When he was convinced of the supremacy of the Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy, he took initiation from Radha Damodara Goswami.
Baladeva then continued his studies of the Gaudiya literature under Pitambara Dasa and later studied the Srimad Bhagavata under Vishvanatha Chakravarti. He also took the Vaishnava mendicant’s robe, at which time he was given the name Ekanti Govinda Das.
Baladeva is probably most well known amongst Gaudiya Vaishnavas for his debate with the Ramanandi scholars of Galta that led to his writing the Govinda-bhasya – the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentary on the Vedanta-sutra. After this episode, he was given the title ‘Vidyabhusana’.
The following is a list of Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s written works:
(1) A commentary on the Vedanta-sutras, Govinda-bhasya;
(2) Siddhanta-ratnam,
(3) Vedanta-syamantaka,
(4) Prameya-ratnavali,
(5) Siddhanta-darpana,
(6) Sahitya-kaumudi,
(7) Kavya-kaustubha,
(8) Vyakarana-kaumudi (which appears to have been lost);
(9) Pada-kaustubha,
(10) Vaishnava-nandini, a commentary on the Tenth Canto,
(11) A commentary on Gopal-tapani Upanisad;
(12) Commentaries on the Isa and nine other upanisads;
(13) Gitabhusana-bhasya, a commentary on Bhagavad-gita;
(14) Namartha-sudha, a commentary on the Vishnu-sahasranama;
(15) Saranga-rangada, a commentary on the Laghu-bhagavatamrta;
(16) Stavamala-vibhusana, a commentary on Stavamala;
(17) A commentary on Rupa Goswami’s Natika-candrika;
(18) Chandah-kaustubha-bhasya;
(20) A commentary on Rasikananda’s Syamananda-sataka;
(21) A commentary on Candraloka (which appears to have been lost);
(22) Krsnanandini, a commentary on Sahitya-kaumudi;
(23) Govindabhasya-tika, a commentary on his own Govinda-bhasya;
(24) Suksma, a further clarification of his own Siddhanta-ratnam;
