This book contains two parts. The first consists of a detailed introduction to the Bhaktimandākinī of Pūrṇasarasvatī, who lived in Kerala and dates to the late fourteenth century to early fifteenth century. The second contains the text of the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra, attributed to Śaṅkarācārya but certainly dating to several centuries later, and a critical edition of the Bhaktimandākinī, which is a commentary on the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra. The authors begin their substantial introduction by reviewing the evidence regarding the authorship of the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra, and conclude the author cannot be Śaṅkara because the stotra has too many references to post-Śaṅkara texts, including the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa. In any event, the commentator, Pūrṇasarasvatī, probably lived several centuries after the stotra was composed. He was not an inconsiderable name in the history of Sanskrit commentarial literature. He wrote commentaries on Sanskrit poetry and drama, including on Kālidāsa's Meghadūta called Vidyullatā, a ṭīkā on Kālidāsa's Abhijñānaśakuntalam, on Bhavabhūti's Mālatīmādhava called Rasamañjarī, and on the Anargharāghava of Murāri called Anargharāghavapañcikā (if one assumes the identity of Pūrṇasarasvatī with Viṣṇubhaṭṭa, as is argued here). In addition, he composed several independent kāvya works.

The text of the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra is a meditation on the form of Viṣṇu to be used by devotees in their practice of yoga. Pūrṇasarasvatī’s commentary begins with a standard Upaniṣadic injunction to sit at the feet of a teacher, contemplate the teaching, and meditate on it (śravaṇa, manana, nididhyāsana). He continues by saying that meditation on the form of a deity (svarūpagrahaṇam) is easier than meditation on the abstract reality, even if the former leads to the latter.

Pūrṇasarasvatī provides word meanings, defends the author's occasional questionable Sanskrit usages, explains allusions in the text, discusses the poetic flourishes (alaṃkāra), and is consistently sympathetic to the poet. He cites more than sixty texts in his commentary, including many Purāṇas, the Manusmṛti, the Ṛgveda, the Mahābhārata, the Nyāyasūtra, the Yogasūtra, and many Upaniṣads and other Vedānta texts. Thus, Pūrṇasarasvatī was exceptionally learned, an erudition which is on full display in this text. The edition is based on five published texts of the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra, texts which are in almost complete agreement. They have located four texts of the Bhaktimandākinī in libraries in Kerala, and have noted several other manuscripts, recorded in manuscript lists, that they were unable to trace. With all of this, they have managed to improve greatly upon the 1911 Vani Vilas Press edition, which had been the standard for a century.

The text of the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra consists of 52 verses in the sragdharā meter, each verse containing a description of an aspect of Viṣṇu that is intended for a meditative visualization. This has many precedents in the Purāṇas, but what is depicted here is concise and highly organized. For example, there are specific verses on Viṣṇu's weapons, including his conch (pañcajanya), discus (sudarśana), bow (śārṅga), sword (nandaka), and club (kaumodakī); his wives Lakṣmī and Bhū; the dust on his feet (puṃsava); thirty-seven parts of his body, ranging from the auspicious marks on the soles of his feet to his curly hair (kuntalālī), the crown of his head (kirīta), and his entire body (dehāmbhodhi); his ten incarnations (avatāra), the absolute reality (brahman); and finally the devotee or bhakta himself. For each of these, Pūrṇasarasvatī supplies full textual explication, precedents in previous texts, and much more, to bring out the fullness of the images.

The editors have translated the entire text of the Viṣṇupādādikeśavastotra at the end of their introduction, and provided many of Pūrṇasarasvatī’s exegetical comments in footnotes. This is a difficult text, so the translation, which reads very well, is a noteworthy accomplishment. Every verse contains many attractive images, and was probably used for several centuries as a meditation text among certain circles of South Indian Vaiṣṇavas. The second, much longer, section is a precisely written critical edition of the two texts (170 pp.). The editors, all accomplished Sanskritists with long experience editing difficult texts, have worked hard to meet the strictest standards of contemporary critical editing now observed at Oxford, Pondicherry, and elsewhere. This volume of exquisite devotional poetry is a valuable addition to the literature on Vaiṣṇava meditational iconography, a genre that is little-known outside of explicitly sectarian circles. It also makes accessible to the modern reader another work by the important pre-modern Kerala paṇḍit Pūrṇasarasvatī.