＜ Śambhala ＞コミュのNagarjuna Biography (English)

Acharya Nāgārjuna (Telugu: నాగార్జున; Chinese: 龍樹; Tibetan: Klu Sgrub) (c. 150 - 250 AD) was an Indian philosopher, the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and arguably the most influential Buddhist thinker after Gautama Buddha himself.

His writings were the basis for the formation of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) 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.

History
Very few details on the life of Nāgārjuna are known, although many legends exist. He was born in South India, near the town of Nagarjunakonda (నాగార్జునకొండ) in present day Nagarjuna Sagar in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.[citation needed] According to traditional biographers and historians such as Kumarajiva (鳩摩羅什), he was born into a Brahmin family, but later converted to Buddhism. This may be the reason he was one of the earliest significant Buddhist thinkers to write in classical Sanskrit rather than Pāli or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.

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From studying his writings, it is clear that Nāgārjuna was conversant with the Nikaya school philosophies and with the emerging Mahāyāna tradition. If the most commonly accepted attribution of texts (that of Christian Lindtner) holds, then he was clearly a Māhayānist, but his philosophy holds assiduously to the canon, and while he does make explicit references to Mahāyāna texts, he is always careful to stay within the parameters set out by the canon.



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