Nagarjuna Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Nāgārjuna (c. 150 - 250 CE) was an Indian philosopher, the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Buddhism, and arguably the most influential Indian Buddhist thinker after the Gautama Buddha himself.His writings were the basis for the formation of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school, which was transmitted to China under the name of the Three Treatise (Sanlun) School. He is credited with developing the philosophy of the Prajnaparamita sutras, and was closely associated with the Buddhist university of Nalanda.
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2 Writings 3 Philosophy 4 English Translations 5 See also 6 External links |
Very few details on the life of Nagarjuna are known, although many legends exist. He may have been born in South India, probably near the town of Nagarjunikonda. According to traditional biographers and historians such as Kumarajiva, he was born into a Brahmin family, but later converted to Buddhism. This may be the reason he was one of the few significant Buddhist thinkers to write in Sanskrit rather than Pāli; or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.
From studying his writings, it is clear that Nāgārjuna was conversant with the Nikaya school philosophies and with the emerging Mahāyāna tradition. 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 canon, and he virtually never quotes or refers to, let alone depends on, Mahāyāna texts. His philosophy is highly independent (as appropriate to one who !), and his early Madhyamaka thought is in many ways a middle road between the two vehicles.
In Tibetan tradition, he is identified with a sorcerer of the same name. Some identify him with Nāgasena; as well.
It is worth noting that Lindtner considers that the Māhaprajāparamitopadea, a huge commentary on the Large Prajāparamita not to be a genuine work of Nāgārjuna. This is only extant in a Chinese translation by Kumarajiva. There is much discussion as to whether this is a work of Nāgārjuna, with some original comments by Kumarajiva, or an original work by Kumarajiva based on the philosophy of Nāgārjuna.
History
Writings
There exist a number of influential texts attributed to Nāgārjuna, although most were probably written by later authors. The only work that all scholars agree is Nagarjuna's is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way), which contains the essentials of his thought in twenty-seven short chapters. According to Lindtner the works definitely written by Nagarjuna are:
There are other works attributed to Nāgārjuna, some of which may be genuine and some not. There is evidence for a second, later, Nāgārjuna who was the author of a number of tantric works which have subsequently been incorrectly attributed to the original Nāgārjuna.Philosophy
Nāgārjuna's primary contribution to Buddhist philosophy is in the development of the concept of , or "emptiness," which brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatta and (dependent origination). For Nāgārjuna, it is not merely humans that are empty of ātman; all things are without any svabhāva, literally "own-nature" or "self-nature", and thus without any underlying essence; they are '\'empty'' of being. This is so because they are arisen dependently: not by their own power, but by depending on conditions leading to their coming into existence, as opposed to being.
Nāgārjuna was also instrumental in the development of the two-truths doctrine, which claims that there are two levels of truth in Buddhist teaching, one which is directly true, and one which is only conventionally or instrumentally true, commonly called upāya in later writings. drew on an early version of this doctrine found in the Kaccāyanagotta Sutta, which distinguishes nītārtha (clear) and neyārtha (obscure) terms. Nāgārjuna differentiates between savti (conventional) and paramārtha (ultimately true) teachings, but he seldom declares any to fall in this latter category; for him, even is ūnya--even emptiness is empty. For him, ultimately,
For more on Nāgārjuna's philosophy, see .
| Author | Title | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield, J L | The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way | Oxford, 1995 | A translation of the Tibetan version together with commentary |
| Inada, K | Mulamadhyamakakarika | Hokuseido, 1970 | A translation of the verses only. |
| Kalupahana, D J | The Philosophy of the Middle Way | SUNY, 1986 | Translation and commentary |
| Sprung M | Lucid exposition of the Middle Way | RKP, 1979 | Partial translation of the verses together with Chandrakirti's commentary. |
| McCagney, N | Nagarjuna and the Philosophy of Openness | Rowman & Littlefield, c1997 | Translation and Philosophical analysis |
| Author | Title | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lindtner, C | Nagarjuniana | Motilal, 1987 [1982] | Contains Sanskrit or Tibetan texts and translations of the Shunyatasaptati, Vaidalyaprakarana, Vyavaharasiddhi (fragment), Yuktisastika, Catuhstava and Bodhicittavivarana. A translation only of the Bodhisambharaka. The Sanskrit and Tibetan texts are given for the Vigrahavyavartani. In addition a table of source sutras is given for the Sutrasamuccaya. |
| Komito, D R | Nagarjuna's "Seventy Stanzas" | Snow Lion, 1987 | Translation of the Shunyatasaptati with Tibetan commentary |
| Bhattacharya, Johnston and Kunst | The Dialectical Method of Nagarjuna | Motilal, 1978 | A superb translation of the Vigrahavyavartani |
| Kawamura, L | Golden Zephyr | Dharma, 1975 | Translation of the Suhrlekkha with a Tibetan commentary |
| Jamieson, R.C. | Nagarjuna's Verses on the Great Vehicle and the Heart of Dependent Origination | D.K., 2001 | Translation and edited Tibetan of the Mahayanavimsika and the Pratityasamutpadahrdayakarika, including work on texts from the cave temple at Dunhuang, Gansu, China |
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External links
Nagarjuna is also an actor in Telugu films.