Vishnuswami

Viṣṇusvāmī was a Hindu religious leader. He is primarily known for having started the Rudra sampradaya. There are almost no sources on the life of Viṣṇusvāmī. The dates of Viṣṇusvāmī's life are unknown, but scholars conjecture he lived circa the 13th century. Viṣṇusvāmī's own works do not survive, and thus little is directly known of his theological positions. His students are also unknown, and his lineage did not continue uninterrupted.

According to Śrīdhara's commentaries on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (c. 1250), Viṣṇusvāmī considered Narasiṁha to be the supreme deity. Mādhavācārya's Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha (14th century) quotes the Sākarasiddhi, a work of one of Viṣṇusvāmī's followers, and states the same.

There exists a copper land-grant plate dated to 1661, which states that the Vijayanagara ruler Raṁga Rāya gifted the villages of Raṇaghaṭa and Hirekalyāṇi to the head of the Viṣṇusvāmī maṭha. The plate states that Viṣṇusvāmī was a 5th generation student of Gauḍapāda, the student of Śuka, the student of Vyāsa and from there Nārada.

In 1812, the king of Mysore Kr̥ṣṇa Rāja Oḍeyar III remitted the taxes owed by Kr̥ṣṇānanda Svāmī, who was the head of the Viṣṇusvāmī maṭha.