Bhāskararāya Makhin (1690–1785) was a religious exponent and writer known for his contributions to the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. He was born in a Maharashtrian Brahmin family at Hyderabad, Telangana. Bhaskara raya was welcomed by king Serfoji II of Bhonsle dynasty in South India, and thereupon he settled in Tamil Nadu. According to Douglas Renfrew Brooks, a professor of Religion specializing in Shaktism studies, Bhāskararāya was "not only a brilliant interpreter of Srividya, he was an encyclopedic writer", and that he was a "thinker who had the wealth of Tantric and Vedic traditions at his fingertips". He belonged to the Srividya tradition of the Shakta Tantrism. Bhāskararāya is the attributed author of more than 40 writings that range from Vedanta to poems of devotion, from Indian logic and Sanskrit grammar to the studies of Tantra. Several of his texts are considered particularly notable to the Shaktism tradition, one focussed on the Mother Goddess: His Khadyota ("Firefly") commentary on the Ganesha Sahasranama is considered authoritative by Ganapatya. The important events of Bhāskararāya's life is written by his disciple Jagannath Paṇḍitor Umānandnātha in Bhaskaravilas Kavyam.