Contents
Nagarjuna
Developing the Madhyamaka account of emptiness in Buddhist philosophy.
Root Verses on the Middle Way · Dependent arising
- Born
- c. 150
- Birthplace
- India
- Died
- c. 250
More people
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna was an Indian Buddhist thinker whose arguments became foundational to Mahayana traditions.
Early life
Historical limits
Accounts of his life mix history and later religious traditions.
Formation
Worked within the Buddhist scholarly world of ancient India.
Career
- Early centuries CE
Buddhist scholarship
Engaged with debates about causation and reality.
- Philosophical work
Middle Way
Challenged the idea that things possess independent, fixed natures.
- Transmission
Later schools
His arguments became central to Indian, Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism.
Ideas & writings
Root Verses on the Middle Way
Examined causation, motion and other basic concepts.
Dependent arising
Connected the dependence of things with their lack of independent essence.
Critical argument
Tested competing positions by tracing their consequences.
Historical context
Attribution
Not every text traditionally bearing his name can securely be assigned to him.
Legacy
Later commentators developed several interpretations of his thought.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Photo: Unknown | Recovered from Himalayan Art Resources. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
