Raghunandana

Raghunandana (c. 16th century CE) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar from the Bengal region. His writings include 28 Smriti digests on Hindu law and a commentary on the Hindu law code prevalent in Bengal, the Dayabhaga.

Life

Raghunandana was born at Nabadwip to a Bengali Brahmin named Harihara Bhattacharya. He was a pupil of Srinatha Acharya Chudamani. Other earlier texts cited by him include the Nirṇayāmṛta. Tradition has it that he was a junior contemporary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu & a batch-mate of Navya-Nyaya scholar Raghunatha Siromani.

The various estimates of his lifespan include: The English scholars compared Raghunandana's digests to the Comyns' Digest, and called him the "Comyns of India".

The commentary quotes several other scholars and works, including Medhatithi, Kulluka Bhatta, the Mitakshara, the Vivada-Ratnakara of Chandeshvara Thakura, Shulapani and the Vivada-Chintamani of Vachaspati Mishra (often critically).

There have been some doubts about the authorship of this commentary. Both Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1810) and Julius Eggeling (1891) suspected that it was not authored by the writer of the Divya-tattva (that is, Raghunandana). However, Monmohan Chakravarti (1915) and Rajendra Chandra Hazra (1950) both attribute the work to Raghunandana. Pandurang Vaman Kane also ascribes the commentary to him, but not without hesitation.

Other works

His other works include:

Gaya-shraddha paddhati which discusses special rites of shraddha to be performed while visiting Gaya Graha-yaga-tattva (or Graha-pramana-tattva) which discusses the rite of grahayajna (a special yajna performed to appease the 9 planets) Tirtha-yatra-tattva (or Tirtha-tattva) which discusses the procedure & rites related to pilgrimage Tripuskara-santi-tattva which discusses rites of pacification to be performed at a specific Hindu astronomical moment called Tripuskara-yoga Dvadasa-yatra-tattva (or Yatra-tattva) which discusses the observance of 12 special festivals performed in Puri Rasa-yatra tattva (or Rasa-yatra paddhati) which discusses the rite of observing Rasa-purnima (a festival observed by Hindus in Bengal, Odisha & Manipur on Kartika purnima commemorating the Raslila)