Nāgārjuna (ca. 2nd century) 
ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ། klu sgrub

Page Sections:

  • Biography
  • On Nāgārjuna’s Text and Authority
  • Noted Scholars and Scholarship
  • Works

Biography of Nāgārjuna

  • Berzin Archives. “Nagarjuna.” Study Buddhism. studybuddhism.com
  • “Nagarjuna” Rigpa Wiki. rigpawiki.com
  • Westerhoff, Jan. 2022. “Nāgārjuna.” Edward N. Salta, ed. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Summer ed. plato.stanford.edu

Noted Scholars and Scholarship

Bstan’dzin-rgya-mthso, Dalai Lama XIV; Dan Arnold; Jay Garfield; Christian Lindtner; David Seyfort Ruegg; Jan Westerhoff

  • Murti, T. R. V. 2016. The Central Philosophy of Buddhism: A Study of the Mādhyamika System. Allen & Unwin. JABL
  • Walser, Joseph. 2005. Nagarjuna in Context Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. Columbia University Press. JABL
  • Westerhoff, Jan. 2009. Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Introduction. Oxford University Press.  JABL

Works by Nāgārjuna

Six Collected Works of Reasoning (rigs tshogs drug)

(1) Root Verses on the Middle Way, Called “Wisdom”
Prajñā-nāma-mūlamadhyamakakārikā
Dbu ma rtsa ba’i tshig le’ur byas pa shes rab
དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་
Tibetan   Sanskrit

Translations and Commentaries

  • Nāgārjuna and David J Kalupahana (trans.). 1986. Nāgārjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way. State University of New York Press. JABL 
  • Garfield, Jay L. 2005. The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Translation and Commentary of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Oxford University Press. JABL
  • Garfield, Jay L. (trans.), Geshe Ngawang Samten (trans.). 2006. Ocean of Reasoning: A Great Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā by rJe Tsong Khapa. Oxford University Press. JABL
  • Nāgārjuna and Kenneth K. Inada. 1993. Nagarjuna, a Translation of His Mulamadhyamakakarika with an Introductory Essay. Sri Satguru Publications. JABL 
  • Mabja Jangchub Tsöndrü. 2011. Ornament of Reason. The Great Commentary to Nāgārjuna’s Root of the Middle Way. Snow Lion Publications. JABL
  • Nāgārjuna, Mark Siderits, and Katsura Shōryū. 2013. Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way: Mūlamadhyamakākarikā. Wisdom Publications. JABL

See also commentaries by Buddhapālita, Candrakīrti, Bhāvaviveka, Tsong-kha-pa

(2) Sixty Verses of Reasoning
Yuktiṣaṣṭikākārika
Rigs pa drug cu pa
རིགས་པ་དྲུག་ཅུ་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་

  • Nāgārjuna, Joseph John Loizzo (trans.), Robert A. F Thurman. 2007. Nāgārjuna’s Reason Sixty with Chandrakīrti’s Commentary. American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University with Columbia University’s Center for Buddhist Studies and Tibet House.  JABL 
  • Lindtner, Christian. 1987. Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Nāgārjuna and Christian Lindtner. 1986. Master of Wisdom: Writings of the Buddhist Master Nāgārjuna. Dharma Publishing  JABL

(3) Seventy Verses on Voidness
Śūnyatāsaptatikārikā
Stong pa nyid bdun cu pa’i tshig le’ur byes pa
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བདུན་ཅུ་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་
Tibetan

 

  • Komito, David Ross and Sonam Rinchen. “Nagarjuna’s Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness.” (dhammapk)
  • Komito, David Ross, Sonam Rinchen, Tenzin Dorjee, and Nāgārjuna. 1987. Nagarjuna’s Seventy Stanzas: A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness. Snow Lion. JABL
  • Lindtner, Christian. 1987. Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Nāgārjuna and Chr. Lindtner. 1986. Master of Wisdom: Writings of the Buddhist Master Nāgārjuna. Dharma Pub.  JABL

(4) Refutation of Objections
Vigrahavyāvartanī
Rtsod pa zlog pa
རྩོད་པ་ཟློག་པ་

  • Root text (translated from the original Sanskrit with intro and notes by Bhattacharya; text critically edited by Johnston and Kunst):
    Nāgārjuna, Kamaleswar Bhattacharya (trans.), E. H. Hamilton, and Arnold Kunst (eds). 2002. The Dialectical Method of Nāgārjuna = Vigrahavyāvartanī. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Root text (translated from Sanskrit) and commentary:
    Nāgārjuna, and Jan Westerhoff. 2010. The Dispeller of Disputes: Nāgārjuna’s Vigrahavyāvartanī. Oxford University Press. JABL

(5) Crushing the Categories
Vaidalyaprakaraṇa 
Zhib mo rnam par ’thag pa
ཞིབ་མོ་རྣམ་པར་འཐག་པ་
Tibetan

  • Nāgārjuna and Jan Westerhoff. 2018. Crushing the Categories (Vaidalyaprakaraṇa). American Institute of Buddhist Studies ; Wisdom Publications. JABL
  • Tola, Fernando and Carmen Dragonetti, Nāgārjuna’s Refutation of Logic (Vaidalyaprakaraṇa), Motilal Banarsidass, 1995. JABL

(6) Precious Garland
Ratnāvalī or Ratnamāla
Rgyal po la gtam bya ba rin po che’i phreng ba
རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གཏམ་བྱ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ་
Tibetan

  • Nāgārjuna and Jeffrey Hopkins. 1998. “Precious Garland.” In Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland: 94-164. Snow Lion Publications. (tir50.ch) JABL
  •  Nāgārjuna, John Dunne and Sara McClintock, trans. 1997. The Precious Garland: An Epistle to a King. Wisdom Publications. JABL
  • Tegchok, Khensur Jampa. 2017. Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness. A Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Wisdom. JABL

 

Texts

Collection of Praises
Catuḥstava
Bstod tshogs
བསྟོད་ཚོགས་

  • Lindtner, Chr. 1987. Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Nāgārjuna and Chr. Lindtner. 1986. Master of Wisdom: Writings of the Buddhist Master Nāgārjuna. Dharma Publishing. JABL
  • Tola, Fernando, and Carmen Dragonetti. 1985. “Nāgārjuna’s Catustava.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 13, no. 1: 1–54. JSTOR

Praise to World Transcendent
Lokatistava
‘Jig rten las ‘das par bstod pa
འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པར་བསྟོད་པ་
Tibetan   Sanskrit

  • Nāgārjuna and Thupten Jinpa. 2007. “Hymn to [the Buddha] the World Transcendent.” tibetanclassics.org

Praise to the Inexpressible
Acintyastava
Bsam gyis mi khyab par bstod pa
བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པར་བསྟོད་པ་
Tibetan   Sanskrit

  • Lindtner, Chr. 1987. Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL (pdf)
  • Nāgārjuna and Chr. Lindtner. 1986. Master of Wisdom: Writings of the Buddhist Master Nāgārjuna. Dharma Publishing. JABL

Nirupamyastava

  • Tola, Fernando, and Carmen Dragonetti. 1985. “Nāgārjuna’s Catustava.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 13, no. 1: 1–54. JSTOR

Paramarthastava

  • Tola, Fernando, and Carmen Dragonetti. 1985. “Nāgārjuna’s Catustava.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 13, no. 1: 1–54. JSTOR

Other Texts (Part of Collection of Advice)

Letter to a Friend
Suhrllekha
Bshes pa’i springs yig
བཤེས་པའི་སྤྲིངས་ཡིག་
Tibetan   Sanskrit

  • Nāgārjuna and Alexander Berzin (trans.) “Letter to a Friend.” Study Buddhism by Berzin Archives. English  Tibetan
  • Nāgārjuna, Red-mdaʼ-ba Gzhon-nu-blo-gros, Lobsang Tharchin, and Artemus B Engle (eds.) 1979. Nāgārjuna’s Letter : Nāgārjuna’s “Letter to a Friend” with a Commentary by Venerable Rendawa Zhön-Nu Lo-Drö. Library of Tibetan Works & Archives. JABL

Commentary on Bodhicitta
Bodhicittavivāraṇa
Byang chub sems kyi ‘grel ba
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་
Tibetan   Sanskrit

  • Lindtner, Christian (trans.) Bodhicittavivarana Exposition of Bodhicitta attributed to Nagarjuna (a critique of Vijnanavada). mit.edu
  • Lindtner, Chr. 1987. Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Motilal Banarsidass. JABL
  • Nāgārjuna and Chr. Lindtner. 1986. Master of Wisdom: Writings of the Buddhist Master Nāgārjuna. Dharma Publishing. JABL
  • Thupten Jinpa (trans.) “Bodhicitta Vivarana: A Commentary on the Awakening Mind.” sangye.it

 

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