Extracts from a commentary by Śrī Satyadharma Tīrtha of the Madhva-sampradāya have been included in the Madhva Vilas edition of Rāmāyaṇa in 1911 for Cantos 2 to 7. In this edition, we have presented an abridged rendition of it in the form of a gloss.¹ When Śrī Govindarāja does not comment on verses fully or partially and Śrī Satyadharma Tīrtha does, they are reflected in the translations whenever possible. When he has a reading different from Śrī Govindarāja and the meaning of the verse is unaffected, we have not noted these readings. And when his comment is identical to Śrī Govindarāja’s, we have not noted it.

Śrī Satyadharma Tīrtha ruled the Uttarādi Maṭha of the Madhva line between 1797 and 1830 A.D. He was extremely learned and a good poet too. His commentary on the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa follows the teachings of Śrī Madhvācārya. He has explicated the intention of Śrī Vālmīki impressively, beautifully and effectively. His commentary is named Rāmāyaṇa-bhāva-dīpa (“A lamp illuminating the intentions of Rāmāyaṇa”).²

The eminent historian of the Madhva school Dr BNK Sharma has noted in his History and Literature of the Dvaita School of Vedānta that some ten works have been attributed to Satyadharma Tīrtha and that the doctrinal aspect [of Madhva’s teachings] is not lost sight of by him in his Rāmāyaṇa commentary.

We have occasionally also added technical notes as footnotes containing (a) very brief extracts from other Sanskrit commentaries on the Rāmāyaṇa, or (b) indications of the syntactic relations between certain words in the original Sanskrit text since there are occasions when two or more noncontiguous Sanskrit words need to be translated into a single English word or phrase. Technical notes of type (a) are generally given under footnotes in the translation while those of type (b) are given under footnotes in the synonyms. All of these are for the benefit of those who either know Sanskrit or who are learning Sanskrit to clarify the meaning of particular words or phrases in the original.

We have also presented on a few occasions brief extracts from Śrī Govindarāja’s and Śrī Satyadharma Tīrtha’s commentaries in footnotes in Sanskrit for the same audience.

¹. We have accordingly decided to present only an abridged translation of Śrī Nārāyaṇa Paṇḍita’s Saṅgraha Rāmāyaṇa as Canto Summaries for these Cantos.

². This information is derived from Madhvācārya’s Contribution to Rāmāyaṇa as Reflected in his Mahābhārata-tātparya-nirṇaya, a thesis submitted to Karnatak University, Dharwad, by SM Sulibhavi. This was downloaded from Shodhganga at https://sg.inflibnet.ac.in.