The Mādhyamikas

The Mādhyamika theories are well documented. They originated about 650 BE with Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva, both South Indians. ⁷⁷⁰ About twenty-five different works are attributed to Nāgārjuna. The most important are the Mādhyamikakārikā ⁷⁷¹ the Vigraha-vyāvartanl ⁷⁷² (‘Repudiation of Contests’), the Ratnāvallā ⁷⁷³ and perhaps the Mahāyānaviṃś. ⁷⁷⁴ A very extensive commentary to the Large Prajñāpāramitā ⁷⁷⁵ is also attributed to a Nāgārjuna who may, or may not, have been the same person as the author of the ‘Verses on the Mādhyamika doctrine’. No one doubts, however, that it expounds authoritatively the point of view of his school as it developed in the North-West of India. An almost unbelievable wealth of information is spread before us in this truly encyclopedic work which was composed at a period when the vigour of Buddhist thought was at its very height. Of Āryadeva we have chiefly the Catuḥśataka ⁷⁷⁶ (400 verses). Of great importance are the commentaries to the Mādhyamikakārikā. The most useful of these is the Prasannapadā ⁷⁷⁷ (‘The Clear-Worded’) of Candraklrti (1150 BE). Essentially an exposition of Candrakśrti’s point of view is also Professor T. R. V. Murti’s The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (1955) which combines sustained intellectual effort and lucidity with scrupulous scholarship and metaphysical passion. Of the later Mādhyamika works the most important are Śāntideva’s c. AD 700) Bodhicaryāvatāra ⁷⁷⁸ (‘Entrance to the practice of enlightenment’), Śāntirakshita’s (c. 760) Tattvasamgraha ⁷⁷⁹ (‘Compendium of Reality’) and Kamalaśīla’s (AD 793) three works on Bhāvanākrama. ⁷⁸⁰