The River of Ambrosia: An Alternative Commentarial Tradition of the Bhagavata Purana

Although the Bhagavata Purana, one of the most famous Hindu scriptures, found its final form around the tenth century CE, the first extant commentaries on the text date from a full three to four centuries later. This essay analyses for the first time an unpublished commentary on the Bhagavata called the Amrtatarangini, or the River of Ambrosia, written around the same time as its more famous counterpart, the Bhavarthadipika by Sridhara. I argue that the River of Ambrosia is one member of an entirely alternative commentarial tradition, one that circumvented the geographical routes and religious affinities that scholars have associated with the reception history of the Bhagavata. My essay focuses on two features of the River of Ambrosia: philosophy and aesthetics. Finally, I make a case for the alternativeness of this tradition qua tradition, in light of its later appropriation in sixteenth-century Kerala.