It looks like you're offline.
Open Library logo
additional options menu
Last edited by Tom Morris
February 20, 2026 | History

Nāgārjuna

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.

We need a photo of Nāgārjuna

3rd-century Indian Buddhist philosopher

Born 2nd cent.
Died c. 250

181 works Add another?

We need a photo of Nāgārjuna

3rd-century Indian Buddhist philosopher

Born 2nd cent.
Died c. 250

ID Numbers

Links outside Open Library

No links yet. Add one?

Alternative names

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
February 20, 2026 Edited by Tom Morris merge authors
February 20, 2026 Edited by Tom Morris reverted to revision 2
September 12, 2010 Edited by Prajña merge authors
May 21, 2009 Edited by EdwardBot merge authors
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import