Advaitananda Saraswati is a 16th Century author of many works on advaita and nyaya. He was a pupil of Svayamprakasha Saraswat. As a householder, Advaitananda name was Ranganatha. He belonged to the Nalagantu family, and was the son of Kalahasti Yajvan (author of Advaitaratnakosha Vyakhya and Bhedadhikara Vivirti) and Yajnambika. He was patronized by Immadi Jagadeva Viraraya (1540 – 90 CE), chief of Cennapatna in Mysore.
Tarkabhashaprakasika is a commentary on Krishnamishra’s Tarka Bhasha. Besides Candrika Vyakhya on Sasadhara’s Nyaya Siddhanta Dipa, he wrote Rjuprakasika, a commentary on Bhamati of Vachaspati Mishra, the celebrated Advaita scholar. Bhamati’s views and interpretations of Brahmasutra established a distinct place different from the Vivarana school of Padmapada. Rijuprakasika is one of the nine commentaries on Bhamati, edited by Ananthakrishna Shastri. Tarkabhasha-tattvabodhini Vyakhya, a sub-commentary on Tarkabhasha, is another work of Advaitananda Saraswati.
There are some other writers with the same name as Advaitananda Sarasvati. One of them is a pupil of Akhand Anubhuti, author of Tatvadipana, a commentary on Panchapadika Vivarana of Prakasatman. Tatvadipana discusses the question of avidya or ajnana, which, according to it, is a power inherent in the transcendent self. It is, in fact, an entity having certain powers by which it transform itself into cosmic appearances, subjective and objective. Another Advaitananda Saraswati is the author of Mahavishnupujapaddhati, Muktisopanatantra and Kaivalyavardhani, a commentary on Saundaryalahari, the well known devotional lyric of Adi Shankaracharya.
Advaitananda Saraswati was the preceptor of Acyutakrishnanandatirtha (1650 – 1750 CE), author of the commentary Krishnalankara on Nyayarakshamani of the prolific writer, Appayya Dikshita.