Brahmanandin was a pre-Shankara Vedantin and commentator on Chandogya Upanishad. Brahmanandin is also referred to as Nandin and Ranka. Sudarshana, commentator on Ramanujacharya’s Vedantasagraha, states that Ranka was none other than Brahmanandin. Adi Shankaracharya refers to him as Agamavid. Brahmanandin is referred to as belonging to Atri gotra and as an expert in Vedanta literature. While recounting the early philosophers, Ramanuja and his followers, too, recall the following authors – Bodhayana, Tanaka, Dravida, Guhadeva, Kapardi and Bharuci.
Chandogya Upanishad is known as Mantra Brahmana Upanishad.
The first two sections called prapathakas are devoted to mantras to be recited
at rituals and the latter eight deal with matters concerned with meditation and
spirituality. The latter eight are popularly numbered as one to eight adhyayas.
The first five deal with Samaveda chants to be recited by the priest at Soma
sacrifices and the meditations to be performed therein as part of the rituals.
The sixth is called sadvidya, and it deals with Brahman as the only existence. The
seventh deals with Bhumavidya Brahman as abundance and the eighth with
daharavidya, or meditating upon the Brahman within a heart’s space.
Brahmanandin wrote his commentary in the form of aphoristic
sentences. Hence, he is called vakyakara or vartikakara as also a bhashyakara
too. His work has been commented upon by Dravidacharya. Eight sentences have
been quoted in Advaita works and 22 of these are found in Visishtadvaita works
and one passage is found in the work of Bhaskara.
The Advaitins are indebted to Brahmanandin for spelling out
the role of Pramana (source of knowledge) in the Advaita epistemology as the
Brahman cannot be the content of any cognition. According to him, the Pramanas
are useful in that they help the cessation of all superimpositions.
While Ramanuja and his followers quote him approvingly,
Yamuna, predecessor of Ramanuja, states that Brahmanandin’s work is only a
rejoinder to the thoughts and principles of some earlier authors.