Nāgārjuna (c. 150 – c. 250 CE) is widely
considered one of the most important Buddhist
philosophers. Along with his disciple Āryadeva,
he is considered to be the founder of the
Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Nāgārjuna is also credited with developing
the philosophy of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras
and, in some sources, with having revealed
these scriptures in the world, having recovered
them from the nāgas (water spirits often
depicted in the form of serpent-like humans).
Furthermore, he is traditionally supposed
to have written several treatises on rasayana
as well as serving a term as the head of Nālandā.
== History ==
Very little is reliably known of the life
of Nāgārjuna, since the surviving accounts
were written in Chinese and Tibetan centuries
after his death. According to some accounts,
Nāgārjuna was originally from South India.
Some scholars believe that Nāgārjuna was
an advisor to a king of the Satavahana dynasty.
Archaeological evidence at Amarāvatī indicates
that if this is true, the king may have been
Yajña Śrī Śātakarṇi, who ruled between
167 and 196 CE. On the basis of this association,
Nāgārjuna is conventionally placed at around
150–250 CE.According to a 4th/5th-century
biography translated by Kumārajīva, Nāgārjuna
was born into a Brahmin family in Vidarbha
(a region of Maharashtra) and later became
a Buddhist.
Some sources claim that in his later years,
Nāgārjuna lived on the mountain of Śrīparvata
near the city that would later be called Nāgārjunakoṇḍa
("Hill of Nāgārjuna"). The ruins of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa
are located in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh.
The Caitika and Bahuśrutīya nikāyas are
known to have had monasteries in Nāgārjunakoṇḍa.
The archaeological finds at Nagarjunakonda
have not resulted in any evidence that the
site was associated with Nagarjuna. The name
"Nagarjunakonda" dates from the medieval period,
and the 3rd-4th century inscriptions found
at the site make it clear that it was known
as "Vijayapuri" in the ancient period.
== Works ==
There exist a number of influential texts
attributed to Nāgārjuna though, as there
are many pseudepigrapha attributed to him,
lively controversy exists over which are his
authentic works.
=== Mūlamadhyamakakārikā ===
The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is Nāgārjuna's
best-known work. It is "not only a grand commentary
on the Buddha's discourse to Kaccayana, the
only discourse cited by name, but also a detailed
and careful analysis of most of the important
discourses included in the Nikayas and the
agamas, especially those of the Atthakavagga
of the Sutta-nipata.
Utilizing the Buddha's theory of "dependent
arising" (pratitya-samutpada), Nagarjuna demonstrated
the futility of [...] metaphysical speculations.
His method of dealing with such metaphysics
is referred to as "middle way" (madhyama pratipad).
It is the middle way that avoided the substantialism
of the Sarvastivadins as well as the nominalism
of the Sautrantikas.
In the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, "[A]ll experienced
phenomena are empty (sunya). This did not
mean that they are not experienced and, therefore,
non-existent; only that they are devoid of
a permanent and eternal substance (svabhava)
because, like a dream, they are mere projections
of human consciousness. Since these imaginary
fictions are experienced, they are not mere
names (prajnapti)."
=== Major attributed works ===
According to David Seyfort Ruegg, the Madhyamakasastrastuti
attributed to Candrakirti (c. 600 – c. 650)
refers to eight texts by Nagarjuna:the (Madhyamaka)karikas,
the Yuktisastika, the Sunyatasaptati, the
Vigrahavyavartani, the Vidala (i.e. Vaidalyasutra/Vaidalyaprakarana),
the Ratnavali, the Sutrasamuccaya, and Samstutis
(Hymns). This list covers not only much less
than the grand total of works ascribed to
Nagarjuna in the Chinese and Tibetan collections,
but it does not even include all such works
that Candrakirti has himself cited in his
writings.According to one view, that of Christian
Lindtner, the works definitely written by
Nāgārjuna are:Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikā (Fundamental
Verses of the Middle Way), available in three
Sanskrit manuscripts and numerous translations.
Śūnyatāsaptati (Seventy Verses on Emptiness),
accompanied by a prose commentary ascribed
to Nagarjuna himself.
Vigrahavyāvartanī (The End of Disputes)
Vaidalyaprakaraṇa (Pulverizing the Categories),
a prose work critiquing the categories used
by Indian Nyaya philosophy.
Vyavahārasiddhi (Proof of Convention)
Yuktiṣāṣṭika (Sixty Verses on Reasoning)
Catuḥstava (Four Hymns): Lokātīta-stava
(Hymn to transcendence), Niraupamya-stava
(to the Peerless), Acintya-stava (to the Inconceivable),
and Paramārtha-stava (to Ultimate Truth).
Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland), subtitled
(rajaparikatha), a discourse addressed to
an Indian king (possibly a Satavahana monarch).
Pratītyasamutpādahṝdayakārika (Verses
on the heart of Dependent Arising), along
with a short commentary (Vyākhyāna).
Sūtrasamuccaya, an anthology of various sutra
passages.
Bodhicittavivaraṇa (Exposition of the awakening
mind)
Suhṛllekha (Letter to a Good Friend)
Bodhisaṃbhāraśāstra (Requisites of awakening),
a work the path of the Bodhisattva and paramitas,
it is quoted by Candrakirti in his commentary
on Aryadeva's four hundred. Now only extant
in Chinese translation (Taisho 1660).The Tibetan
historian Buston considers the first six to
be the main treatises of Nāgārjuna (this
is called the "yukti corpus", rigs chogs),
while according to Tāranātha only the first
five are the works of Nāgārjuna. TRV Murti
considers Ratnaavali, Pratitya Samutpaada
Hridaya and Sutra Samuccaya to be works of
Nāgārjuna as the first two are quoted profusely
by Chandrakirti and the third by Shantideva.
=== Other attributed works ===
In addition to works mentioned above, several
others are attributed to Nāgārjuna. There
is an ongoing, lively controversy over which
of those works are authentic. Contemporary
research suggest that some these works belong
to a significantly later period, either to
late 8th or early 9th century CE, and hence
can not be authentic works of Nāgārjuna.
Several works considered important in esoteric
Buddhism are attributed to Nāgārjuna and
his disciples by traditional historians like
Tāranātha from 17th century Tibet. These
historians try to account for chronological
difficulties with various theories. For example,
apropagation of later writings via mystical
revelation. For a useful summary of this tradition,
see Wedemeyer 2007.
According to Ruegg, "three collections of
stanzas on the virtues of intelligence and
moral conduct ascribed to Nagarjuna are extant
in Tibetan translation": Prajñasatakaprakarana,
Nitisastra-Jantuposanabindu and Niti-sastra-Prajñadanda.Other
works are extant only in Chinese, one of these
is the Shih-erh-men-lun or 'Twelve-topic treatise'
(*Dvadasanikaya or *Dvadasamukha-sastra);
one of the three basic treatises of the Sanlun
school (East Asian Madhyamaka).Lindtner considers
that the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa (Ta-chih-tu-lun,
Taisho 1509, "Commentary on the great prajñaparamita")
which has been influential in Chinese Buddhism,
is not a genuine work of Nāgārjuna. This
work is also only attested in a Chinese translation
by Kumārajīva and is unknown in the Tibetan
and Indian traditions. There is much discussion
as to whether this is a work of Nāgārjuna,
or someone else. Étienne Lamotte, who translated
one third of the work into French, felt that
it was the work of a North Indian bhikṣu
of the Sarvāstivāda school who later became
a convert to the Mahayana. The Chinese scholar-monk
Yin Shun felt that it was the work of a South
Indian and that Nāgārjuna was quite possibly
the author. These two views are not necessarily
in opposition and a South Indian Nāgārjuna
could well have studied the northern Sarvāstivāda.
Neither of the two felt that it was composed
by Kumārajīva, which others have suggested.
Other attributed works include:
Bhavasamkranti
Dharmadhatustava (Hymn to the Dharmadhatu),
uncertain authorship, according to Ruegg,
it shows traces of later Mahayana and Tantrik
thought.
Salistambakarikas
A commentary on the Dashabhumikasutra.
Mahayanavimsika (uncertain authorship as per
Ruegg)
*Ekaslokasastra (Taisho 1573)
*Isvarakartrtvanirakrtih (A refutation of
God/Isvara)
== Philosophy ==
From studying his writings, it is clear that
Nāgārjuna was conversant with many of the
Śrāvaka philosophies and with the Mahāyāna
tradition. However, determining Nāgārjuna's
affiliation with a specific nikāya is difficult,
considering much of this material has been
lost. If the most commonly accepted attribution
of texts (that of Christian Lindtner) holds,
then he was clearly a Māhayānist, but his
philosophy holds assiduously to the Śrāvaka
Tripiṭaka, and while he does make explicit
references to Mahāyāna texts, he is always
careful to stay within the parameters set
out by the Śrāvaka canon.
Nāgārjuna may have arrived at his positions
from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis
of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the
āgamas. In the eyes of Nāgārjuna, the Buddha
was not merely a forerunner, but the very
founder of the Madhyamaka system. David Kalupahana
sees Nāgārjuna as a successor to Moggaliputta-Tissa
in being a champion of the middle-way and
a reviver of the original philosophical ideals
of the Buddha.Nāgārjuna assumes a knowledge
of the definitions of the sixteen categories
as given in the Nyaya Sutras, the chief text
of the Hindu Nyaya school, and wrote a treatise
on the pramanas where he reduced the syllogism
of five members into one of three. In the
Vigrahavyavartani Karika, Nāgārjuna criticizes
the Nyaya theory of pramanas (means of knowledge)
Nāgārjuna was fully acquainted with the
classical Hindu philosophies of Samkhya and
even the Vaiseshika.Because of the high degree
of similarity between Nāgārjuna's philosophy
and Pyrrhonism, particularly the surviving
works of Sextus Empiricus Thomas McEvilley
suspects that Nāgārjuna was influenced by
Greek Pyrrhonists texts imported into India.
Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-c. 270 BCE), who is
usually credited with founding this school
of skeptical philosophy, was himself influenced
by Indian philosophy, when he traveled to
India with Alexander the Great's army and
studied with the gymnosophists.
=== Sunyata ===
Nāgārjuna's major thematic focus is the
concept of śūnyatā (translated into English
as "emptiness") which brings together other
key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anātman
"not-self" and pratītyasamutpāda "dependent
origination", to refute the metaphysics of
some of his contemporaries. For Nāgārjuna,
as for the Buddha in the early texts, it is
not merely sentient beings that are "selfless"
or non-substantial; all phenomena (dhammas)
are without any svabhāva, literally "own-being",
"self-nature", or "inherent existence" and
thus without any underlying essence. They
are empty of being independently existent;
thus the heterodox theories of svabhāva circulating
at the time were refuted on the basis of the
doctrines of early Buddhism. This is so because
all things arise always dependently: not by
their own power, but by depending on conditions
leading to their coming into existence, as
opposed to being.
Nāgārjuna means by real any entity which
has a nature of its own (svabhāva), which
is not produced by causes (akrtaka), which
is not dependent on anything else (paratra
nirapeksha).Chapter 24 verse 14 of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
provides one of Nāgārjuna's most famous
quotations on emptiness and co-arising:
sarvaṃ ca yujyate tasya śūnyatā yasya
yujyatesarvaṃ na yujyate tasya śūnyaṃ
yasya na yujyate
All is possible when emptiness is possible.Nothing
is possible when emptiness is impossible.
As part of his analysis of the emptiness of
phenomena in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā,
Nāgārjuna critiques svabhāva in several
different concepts. He discusses the problems
of positing any sort of inherent essence to
causation, movement, change and personal identity.
Nāgārjuna makes use of the Indian logical
tool of the tetralemma to attack any essentialist
conceptions. Nāgārjuna’s logical analysis
is based on four basic propositions:
All things (dharma) exist: affirmation of
being, negation of non-being
All things (dharma) do not exist: affirmation
of non-being, negation of being
All things (dharma) both exist and do not
exist: both affirmation and negation
All things (dharma) neither exist nor do not
exist: neither affirmation nor negation To
say that all things are 'empty' is to deny
any kind of ontological foundation, therefore
Nāgārjuna's view is often seen as a kind
of ontological anti-foundationalism or a metaphysical
anti-realism.Understanding the nature of the
emptiness of phenomena is simply a means to
an end, which is nirvana. Thus Nāgārjuna's
philosophical project is ultimately a soteriological
one meant to correct our everyday cognitive
processes which mistakenly posits svabhāva
on the flow of experience.
Some scholars such as Fyodor Shcherbatskoy
and T.R.V. Murti held that Nāgārjuna was
the inventor of the Shunyata doctrine, however,
more recent work by scholars such as Choong
Mun-keat, Yin Shun and Dhammajothi Thero has
argued that Nāgārjuna was not an innovator
by putting forth this theory, but that, in
the words of Shi Huifeng, "the connection
between emptiness and dependent origination
is not an innovation or creation of Nāgārjuna."
=== Two truths ===
Nāgārjuna was also instrumental in the development
of the two truths doctrine, which claims that
there are two levels of truth in Buddhist
teaching, the ultimate truth (paramārtha
satya) and the conventional or superficial
truth (saṃvṛtisatya). The ultimate truth
to Nāgārjuna is the truth that everything
is empty of essence, this includes emptiness
itself ('the emptiness of emptiness'). While
some (Murti, 1955) have interpreted this by
positing Nāgārjuna as a neo-Kantian and
thus making ultimate truth a metaphysical
noumenon or an "ineffable ultimate that transcends
the capacities of discursive reason", others
such as Mark Siderits and Jay L. Garfield
have argued that Nāgārjuna's view is that
"the ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate
truth" (Siderits) and that Nāgārjuna is
a "semantic anti-dualist" who posits that
there are only conventional truths. Hence
according to Garfield:
Suppose that we take a conventional entity,
such as a table. We analyze it to demonstrate
its emptiness, finding that there is no table
apart from its parts […]. So we conclude
that it is empty. But now let us analyze that
emptiness […]. What do we find? Nothing
at all but the table’s lack of inherent
existence. […]. To see the table as empty
[…] is to see the table as conventional,
as dependent.
In articulating this notion in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā,
Nāgārjuna drew on an early source in the
Kaccānagotta Sutta, which distinguishes definitive
meaning (nītārtha) from interpretable meaning
(neyārtha):
By and large, Kaccayana, this world is supported
by a polarity, that of existence and non-existence.
But when one reads the origination of the
world as it actually is with right discernment,
"non-existence" with reference to the world
does not occur to one. When one reads the
cessation of the world as it actually is with
right discernment, "existence" with reference
to the world does not occur to one.
By and large, Kaccayana, this world is in
bondage to attachments, clingings (sustenances),
and biases. But one such as this does not
get involved with or cling to these attachments,
clingings, fixations of awareness, biases,
or obsessions; nor is he resolved on "my self".
He has no uncertainty or doubt that just stress,
when arising, is arising; stress, when passing
away, is passing away. In this, his knowledge
is independent of others. It's to this extent,
Kaccayana, that there is right view.
"Everything exists": That is one extreme.
"Everything doesn't exist": That is a second
extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the
Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle...
The version linked to is the one found in
the nikayas, and is slightly different from
the one found in the Samyuktagama. Both contain
the concept of teaching via the middle between
the extremes of existence and non-existence.
Nagarjuna does not make reference to "everything"
when he quotes the agamic text in his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.
=== Causality ===
Jay L. Garfield describes that Nāgārjuna
approached causality from the four noble truths
and dependent origination. Nāgārjuna distinguished
two dependent origination views in a causal
process, that which causes effects and that
which causes conditions. This is predicated
in the two truth doctrine, as conventional
truth and ultimate truth held together, in
which both are empty in existence. The distinction
between effects and conditions is controversial.
In Nāgārjuna's approach, cause means an
event or state that has power to bring an
effect. Conditions, refer to proliferating
causes that bring a further event, state or
process; without a metaphysical commitment
to an occult connection between explaining
and explanans. He argues nonexistent causes
and various existing conditions. The argument
draws from unreal causal power. Things conventional
exist and are ultimately nonexistent to rest
in the middle way in both causal existence
and nonexistence as casual emptiness within
the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā doctrine. Although
seeming strange to Westerners, this is seen
as an attack on a reified view of causality.
=== Relativity ===
Nāgārjuna also taught the idea of relativity;
in the Ratnāvalī, he gives the example that
shortness exists only in relation to the idea
of length. The determination of a thing or
object is only possible in relation to other
things or objects, especially by way of contrast.
He held that the relationship between the
ideas of "short" and "long" is not due to
intrinsic nature (svabhāva). This idea is
also found in the Pali Nikāyas and Chinese
Āgamas, in which the idea of relativity is
expressed similarly: "That which is the element
of light ... is seen to exist on account of
[in relation to] darkness; that which is the
element of good is seen to exist on account
of bad; that which is the element of space
is seen to exist on account of form."
== Iconography ==
Nāgārjuna is often depicted in composite
form comprising human and nāga characteristics.
Often the nāga-aspect forms a canopy crowning
and shielding his human head. The notion of
the naga is found throughout Indian religious
culture, and typically signifies an intelligent
serpent or dragon, who is responsible for
the rains, lakes and other bodies of water.
In Buddhism, it is a synonym for a realised
arhat, or wise person in general.
== See also ==
Acharya Nagarjuna University
Nagarjuna High School
Aryadeva
Buddhapālita
Buddhism
Kamalasila
Middle way
Śāntarakṣita
Sun Simiao
Śūnyatā
Yogachara-Madhyamaka
