Lakshmi Swaminathan is an authority in the Pancaratra Agama, one of the two schools in Vaishnava traditions and has translated Padma Samhita, a work detailing the Vaishnava temple rituals, from Sanskrit to English. She has presented papers on these and related topics in international conferences such as the World Sanskrit Conference. In addition, her research interests include Hinduism, rituals in Hinduism, and Sanskrit literature. As a Research Associate in the Department of Religious Studies at University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she translated a number of Thiruppugazh songs-the Tamil compositions of the saint Arunagirinathar. Previously, she taught Sanskrit at the University of Madras in India. Lakshmi Swaminathan received her Ph. D. in Sanskrit from the Center for Advanced Studies in Sanskrit, University of Poona, India, specializing in Vyakarna - Sanskrit grammar.
