(c. 150-250). Indian monk and philosopher who founded the Madhyamika (or Madhayamaka) School of Mahayana Buddhism and is sometimes regarded as the most influential Buddhist teacher next to Buddha himself. The Madhyamika school is a middle between nihilism and the view that there are eternal essences. The term “madhyamika” itself means “middle way.”

Many important Mahayana works are attributed to Nāgārjuna, particularly the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way).

One of his important contributions is in the development of the concept of sunyata or emptiness, wherein not only human beings are devoid of ātma but that everything else is without an eternal self.

See Mahāyāna Buddhism

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