मूलमध्यमककारिका (आचार्य नागार्जुन - चन्द्रकीर्ति प्रणीत प्रसन्नपदा व्याख्या सहित)

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xiv Madhyamaka-Śāstra
For details of the Mādhyamika School and its followers, the reader is
referred to my work ‘Etudes sur Āryadeva et son Catuḥśataka’, Paris, 1923.
Tradition also, almost uniformly, makes him a contemporary of Kaniṣka
who seems to be friendly to Nāgārjuna, and a letter called Suhṛllekha addressed
by Nāgārjuna to him also exists in Tibetan translation. It is, therefore, safe to
assume that Nāgārjuna lived in the latter half of the second century A. D.
(about 170-200 A. D.).
According to the biography of Nāgārjuna, translated into Chinese by
Kumārajīva (circa 405 A. D.) he was born in a Brahmin family in southern
India, studied the Vedas, and became well-versed in other Brahmanical
lores. He was also known as a mighty magician. Bāṇa records a reference to
Nāgārjuna having received a necklace of pearls from a Nāga king. Tibetan
chronicles almost invariably refer to him as a mighty magician. He had a
pretty long life of 400 years! All this looks like a legend, and to build up history
from such records is very difficult. Laṅkāvatārasūtra, a work belonging to
the Nine Dharmas or Āgamas of Nepal, says (10. 164–166):-
निर्वृते सुगते पश्चात्कालोऽतीतो भविष्यति ।
महामते निबोध त्वं यो नेत्री धारयिष्यति ॥
दक्षिणापथवेदल्यां भिक्षुः श्रीमान् महायशाः ।
नागाह्वयः स नाम्ना तु सदसत्पक्षदारकः ॥
प्रकाश्य लोके मद्यानं महायानमनुत्तरम् ।
आसाद्य भूमिं मुदितां यास्यतेऽसौ सुखावतीम् ॥
One important thing to be noted about the above-quoted stanzas is that they
are found in the 10th and last chapter of the work, This last chapter generally
puts together the stanzas occurring in the first nine chapters of the sūtra, but
precisely these stanzas are not found in the first nine chapters, and therefore,
their antiquity and genuineness become questionable. In any case, Nāgārjuna
is associated in them with Dakṣiṇāpatha. The term Vedalī is of uncertain
significance; it has been confounded with Vidarbha; and so Nāgārjuna is made a
resident or native of Vidarbha. I think we should rather go further south to
find out his native land, and it may not be far from wrong to take his associa-
tion with Nāgārjunikoṇḍā where Buddhist antiquities are recently discovered.
After his conversion to Buddhism, he went to the North upto Kaśmīra and made
a name there. It is said that he spent his last days on Śrīśaila in modern
Āndhra State.
Candrakīrti in his Bhāṣya on Madhyamakāvatāra records a tradition that
Nāgārjuna was an incarnation of Ānanda, the famous attendant of Buddha.
Leaving aside its value as a piece of history, we may take it that Nāgārjuna was
held to be as faithful an interpreter or chronicler of Buddha's teaching as Ānanda
was. Says Candrakṛti:-
अथ तावत् कथं तस्यार्यनार्जुनस्य अविपरीतागमनिर्णयः स्यादिति ? आगमात्......
आर्यद्वादशसहस्रमहामेघसूत्रेउक्तम्-
लिच्छविकुमारोऽयं सर्वसत्त्वानां दर्शने नन्दक इत्यानन्दः निर्वाणाच्चतुःशतेषु वर्षेषु व्यतीतेषु नागाह्वयो
भिक्षुर्भूत्वा मद्देशनां विस्तरेण प्रकाश्य अनुपूर्वेण सुविशुद्धप्रभामूमिनामकलोकधातो तथागतोऽर्हन् सम्यक्संबुद्धो
ज्ञानकरप्रभामिधो भविष्यति ।
There is a very large number of works, no less than 122, ascribed to him in
Tanjur and Kanjur (see Tohoku Catalogue). Leaving apart works on Tantra
or Vaidyaka (आचार्यनागार्जुनभाषित-अवभेषजकल्प, Tohoku No. 4308), most of which

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Introduction xv
seem to have been composed by another and positively later Nāgārjuna, we feel
certain that philosopher Nāgārjuna composed the following works :
(1) Prajñā or Kārikās of the Madhyamakaśāstra and its commentary called
Akutobhayā;
(2) Vigrahavyāvartanī and its commentary;
(3) Yuktiṣaṣṭikā;
(4) Śūnyatāsaptati and its commentary;
(5) Mahāyānaviṃśikā;
(6) Akṣaraśataka and its commentary;
(7) Pratītyasamutpādahṛdaya and its commentary;
(8) Catuḥstava;
(9) Prajñāpāramitāstotra (found at the beginning of Aṣṭasāhasrikā);
(10) Bhāvanākrama;
(11) Sūtrasamuccaya or anthology of Mahāyāna Sūtras;
(12) Suhṛllekha or Ārya Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva Suhṛllekha;
(13) Bhāvasaṃkrānti;
(14) Ratnāvalī; and
(15) Vaidalyaprakaraṇa.
The work under the title Dharmasaṃgraha, which is a collection of
Buddhist Technical Terms and edited in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Vol. I, part V, is
attributed to Nāgārjuna in the colophon, but it does not seem to be a genuine
work of this philosopher, and may be by his later namesake, most probably a
Hīnayānist.
Some of the works above mentioned are available in the original Sanskrit,
but many are still known only from their Tibetan or Chinese translations.
Tārānātha (Geschichte, p. 71) says that adherents of Hīnayāna ascribe the
authorship of the Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā to Nāgārjuna, but this does not
seem likely. The Prajñāpāramitā Literature, at least some works like Pañcavi-
ṃśati and Aṣṭasāhasrikā were already in existence. The ascription may be due
to the confusion between Prajñā which figures as an alternative title of
Madhyamakaśāstra Kārikā in Tibetan tradition and Prajñāpāramitā. In fact,
Nāgārjuna has codified the contents of Prajñāpāramitā literature and other
Mahāyānasūtras in his Kārikās, as Bādarāyaṇa codified the teaching of the
Upaniṣads in his Śārīrakasūtras.
Of the 122 works found in Tohoku Catalogue under Nāgārjuna or Klu-
sgrub or Nāgārjunagarbha, the most important and genuine works of the philo-
sopher have been mentioned in the above list. Other works are minor and
belong more or less to the class of Tantras.
5. Nāgārjuna's Followers
Āryadeva or Deva is mentioned as his direct pupil, who is the author of
Catuḥśataka, Hastavālaprakaraṇa and a few minor works. Among his
successors and commentators, we may mention Buddhapālita, Bhavya or Bhāva-
viveka and Candrakīrti. Of Budhapālita we have only his commentary on
Madhyamakaśāstra found in Tibetan. Bhavya or Bhāvaviveka seems to be
more prolific than Buddhapālita. He wrote, in addition to the commentary on
Madhyamakaśāstra, called Prajñāpradīpa, and some handbooks on the
Mādhyamika system, viz., (1) Madhyamakaratnapradīpa (2) Madhyamika