Nāgārjuna
Personal Information
Description
Acharya Nāgārjuna (Devanagari:नागार्जुन, Tibetan: ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ klu sgrub, Chinese: 龍樹) (ca. 150–250 CE) was an Indian philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. His writings are the basis for the formation of the Madhyamaka 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. In the Jodo Shinshu branch of Buddhism, he is considered the First Patriarch. Little is known about the actual life of the historical Nagarjuna. The two most extensive biographies of Nagarjuna, one in Chinese and the other in Tibetan, were written many centuries after his life and incorporate material seen by some as historically unreliable. Nagarjuna was born a Brahmin, which in his time connoted religious allegiance to the Vedas, probably into an upper-caste Brahmin family and probably in the southern Andhra region of India.
Books
The dispeller of disputes
"Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani is an essential work of Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophical literature. Written in an accessible question-and-answer style, it contains Nagarjuna's replies to criticisms of his philosophy of the "Middle Way." The Vigrahavyavartani has been widely cited both in canonical literature and in recent scholarship; it has remained a central text in India, Tibet, China, and Japan, and has attracted the interest of greater and greater numbers of Western readers. In The Dispeller of Disputes, Jan Westerhoff offers a clear new translation of the Vigrahavyavartani, taking current philological research and all available editions into account, and adding his own insightful philosophical commentary on the text. Crucial manuscript material has been discovered since the earlier translations were written, and Westerhoff draws on this material to produce a study reflecting the most up-to-date research on this text. In his nuanced and incisive commentary, he explains Nagarjuna's arguments, grounds them in historical and textual scholarship, and explicitly connects them to contemporary philosophical concerns."--Publisher's website.
Nāgārjuna samvāda
Transcript of interviews on the works of Nāgārjuna, b. 1911, Hindi and Maithili author; includes extracts from his diary and correspondence in brief.
Bābā Nāgārjuna
Comprises a Hindi poet's letters to Narendra Kohli, b. 1940, Hindi fiction writer; includes editor's reminiscences about the author.
Annahīnam, kriyāhīnam
Articles on Hindi literature and social conditions in India.
Sbyor ba brgya pa
Collected Tibetan translations of ancient Indian medicinal texts predominantly Yogaśataka by Nāgārjuna, 2nd cent. and Aṣṭāṅgahr̥daya by Vāgbhaṭa, 7th cent.
Prajñādaṇḍa
English translation with Tibetan text of Nagarjuna's Prajñādaṇḍa.
Nāgārjunīyā Mūlamadhyamakakārikā Prajñā nāma =
Buddhist canonical text; critically edition.
Catuḥ stavaḥ
Four hymns to Buddha expounding the basic tenets of Mahayana Buddhism.
Dharmasaṅgraha
Classical work comprising classified list of technical terms used in Buddhist philosophy.
Pratītyasamutpāda Hr̥dayakārikā
On dependent origination (Pratītyasamutpāda) in Buddhist philosophy.
Mūlamadhyamakakārikāḥ
Verse work on the basic tenets of the Mādhyamika school in Buddhist philosophy.