Dharma Demystified: Nagarjuna, the Founder of the Mahayana Tradition

A traditional depiction of Arya Nagarjuna with a parasol of nagas over his head and a naga below offering the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra

After the Buddha’s passing, Arya Nagarjuna became one of the main pioneers of the Mahayana tradition in India. From Nagarjuna descended the lineage of teachings on wisdom or the profound view of emptiness via his sacred communion with Bodhisattva Manjushri. Before Nagarjuna’s birth, there were numerous predictions of his coming that were recorded in various sutras, such as the Lankavatra Sutra and so forth. Nagarjuna is also traditionally accepted as one of Lama Tsongkhapa’s earlier incarnations.

According to scriptural sources, Nagarjuna was born to a Brahmin family from the ancient kingdom of Vidarbha in the southern part of India. Upon being presented with the newborn baby, the soothsayer observed auspicious signs of a holy being but also made an ominous prediction that the baby would not live past the seventh day. However, he added that the parents could prolong the baby’s life by up to 7 years if they made offerings to a hundred Buddhist monks. Naturally, the parents obliged and the young Nagarjuna lived to seven years of age. During his seventh year, Nagarjuna’s parents feared for his life and they decided to send him to the renowned Nalanda Monastery, where he met the great master Saraha.

Saraha, a great Indian Mahasiddha

Saraha told Nagarjuna that he could extend his life if he was ordained as a monk and engaged in the meditational practice of Amitayus. The boy gladly accepted and was given the Amitayus initiation, which he diligently practiced. He was thus able to survive past his seventh year.

The following year, Nagarjuna received his novice vows and began his life at Nalanda. He turned out to be brilliant in his studies and quickly became an expert in all the major fields of learning at Nalanda. Saraha, his tutor, also initiated him into the Tantric teachings, first with the initiation of Guhyasamaja, and personally taught him the commentary to this Tantra along with other oral teachings, which Nagarjuna gradually mastered.

When he came of age, Nagarjuna returned to his parents and sought their permission to be ordained. Permission was granted and he returned to the monastery where he was ordained according to the Vinaya by the Abbot of Nalanda and given the ordination name of Sriman (Tibetan equivalent, Palden).

Over the years, Manjushri cared for him as he had done in his previous lives. Once, Saraha requested Nagarjuna’s assistance to provide for the monastery during a time of great famine. Nagarjuna traveled to an island by means of his spiritual powers and he learnt the art of alchemy from a hermit there. Upon his return, he was able to provide for the entire monastery with the knowledge he had gained.

As he grew older, Nagarjuna became so highly respected that he was eventually appointed as the Abbot of Nalanda. Fair governance of the monastery characterized his abbotship and he always ensured that monks who upheld the three higher trainings (discipline, meditation and wisdom) were honored and given due recognition. He was also very strict with errant monks and had no qualms expelling monks who had violated their vows.

However, Nagarjuna was not without his detractors. There was a monk by the name of Sankara who composed a text called Ornament of Knowledge, criticizing Nagarjuna’s teachings in twelve thousand stanzas. There was also a text written by a Hinayana monk, Sendah, who refuted the validity of the Mahayana tradition that Nagarjuna upheld. Nagarjuna easily refuted these two texts along with many other texts that spread wrong views.

Once, while Nagarjuna was teaching to a great assembly, two strange men joined the teachings, bringing with them a powerful scent of sandalwood that permeated the hall. The Acharya noticed the two strangers and asked them who they were. The strangers revealed that they were nagas in disguise and that they were sons of the Naga King Taksaka. They added that they had anointed themselves with the essence of sandalwood so that they could enter into the presence of men without being repelled by their smell. Nagarjuna immediately requested for sandalwood to be carved into an image of Tara and for the nagas’ assistance in building a temple.

The Naga Princes said they would first enquire with their father and promised to revert to the Acharya. The next day, the two Naga Princes returned and sought audience with Nagarjuna, telling him that their father had agreed to help the Acharya, but only if he would follow them to the Land of the Nagas. The Acharya pondered and it dawned on him that traveling to the Naga realm would be beneficial for the welfare of all beings. Therefore, he agreed and was brought to the Land of the Nagas by the two Princes, where he was warmly received and accorded the deepest respect.

Nagarjuna discovered that the Naga King and his subjects were all inclined towards virtue. They made many offerings to the Acharya requesting him to turn the wheel of Dharma, to which the Acharya obliged, much to the delight of the Naga Kings and his subjects.

Finally, the Acharya said he needed to return and the Naga King along with subjects begged him to remain. However, Nagarjuna said he could not stay as he came to bring back the sandalwood, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra and the Nagas’ assistance in building temples and stupas. The Naga King finally consented when the Acharya said that he might return one day.

Nagarjuna returned to the monastery, bringing with him the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in One Hundred Thousand Verses, other abbreviated forms of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, and several other dharanis. The Acharya also brought back sandalwood and naga clay, and built many temples and stupas with these materials.

When the Buddha taught the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, it was believed that the nagas took one version back to their realm for safekeeping, the gods another, and the yakshas who were lords of wealth took yet another. The version of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra that Nagarjuna carried with him were missing the last two chapters, which were withheld by the Nagas in the hopes that he would one day return to teach them further. However, the last two chapters were filled with the last two chapters of The Eight Thousand Verse Prajnaparamita Sutra instead.

With these precious texts, Nagarjuna firmly established the Madhyamaka tradition and spread it all over India. Madhyamaka literally means ‘Middle Way’ and it quickly became the central philosophy of the Mahayana tradition. In order to perpetuate the Mahayana, the Acharya also composed various treatises and commentaries on the Perfection of Wisdom, Buddhist Logic and the Guhyasamaja Tantra.

Once, while Nagarjuna was expounding the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, six nagas came and formed a parasol over his head to shield him from the sun – a scene which has since been immortalized in traditional depictions of him.

The first half of his name – ‘Naga’ – was derived from his close encounters with these serpentine beings. The second half of his name – ‘Arjuna’ – was given to him because of the precise manner in which he delivered his teachings, likened to the famous archer of the same name in the Hindu epic, Bhagavad-Gita. Thus with both names, he became known as Nagarjuna.

In his lifetime, Nagarjuna had many illustrious students but amongst them, there were four primary spiritual sons and three close sons. The Acharya’s four primary sons were Sakyamitra, Nagabodhi, Aryadeva and Matanga while his three close sons were Buddhapalita, Bhavaviveka and Asvagosha. The Acharya also met another of his foremost students, Chandrakirti, when he was older and said to him,

To my last disciple Chandrakirti, I shall show the ultimate Dharma which is not born.

And the Acharya taught the Sutra and Tantra to this promising student. Chandrakirti would later become highly attained and eventually propagated a view of emptiness called the Prasangika tradition based on Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka teachings.

Nagarjuna later traveled to the Northern Continent to teach. Along the way, he came across some children playing by the wayside. Noticing one with an unusual countenance by the name of Jetaka, Nagarjuna prophesied that he would one day be a king. Then, the Acharya went on his way and did not return for many years.

By the time Nagarjuna returned, the little boy had grown up and had become the king of a large and powerful kingdom in South India. The Acharya was invited by this king to stay with him and be his tutor. This was the same king to whom Nagarjuna wrote ‘A Letter to a Friend’ and he referred to King Udayibhadra of the Shatavahana Dynasty. The Shatavahanas were patrons of the stupa in Amaravati, where Buddha had first taught The Kalachakra Tantra and which was also close to Shri Parvata, the place where Nagarjuna engaged in retreats and composed many of his great treatises.

Shatavahana Dynasty

King Udayibhadra had a son, Kumara Shaktiman, who was power hungry and wanted to become king. However, his mother told him that he could never become king until Nagarjuna died because the Acharya and the King were deeply connected.

His mother then told him to ask the Acharya for his head and since he was a Bodhisattva, he would undoubtedly consent. Nagarjuna did in fact agree, but Kumara could not decapitate him with a sword. Nagarjuna then revealed that in a previous life, he had killed an ant while cutting grass. As a karmic result, his head could only be cut off with a blade of kusha grass.

Kumara went on to procure kusha grass and decapitated Nagarjuna. It is said that the blood from the severed head turned into milk and just before dying, the Acharya said,

Now I will go to Sukhavati Pure Land, but I will enter this body again…

Kumara disposed of Nagarjuna’s head a great distance away from the body, but it is said that the head and the body are coming closer together each year and will eventually rejoin; when this happens, the Acharya will return and teach again. According to traditional accounts, Nagarjuna lived for 600 years.

Much later, when Lama Tsongkapa asked Manjushri if he could rely on Chandrakirti’s text in order to comprehend Nagarjuna’s view, Manjushri replied that Chandrakirti’s purposes in appearing on earth was to clarify Nagarjuna’s excellent view. Manjushri then added that Lama Tsongkapa could have full faith in Chandrakirti because he had clearly understood Nagarjuna’s complete view of emptiness.

Lama Tsongkapa finally gained full direct perception of emptiness through his study and meditation on Buddhapalita’s text, which was praised by Chandrakirti who shared the same view. Then, Lama Tsongkapa infused his own writings and teachings with the same, based on his own exhaustive study and divine teachings from Manjushri.

It is said that those who follow Lama Tsongkapa’s writings and lineage would be blessed by Manjushri to gain quicker realizations of emptiness. Thus, Dorje Shugden arose as a Dharma Protector to assist and protect this special uncommon lineage. That is why Dorje Shugden wears the round yellow hat, which is a physical representation of Nagarjuna’s view that he had sworn to protect.

Arya Chandrakirti, one of Nagarjuna’s foremost students

Thus, Nagarjuna is remembered and revered as the founding father of the Mahayana Tradition. The Prajnaparamita Sutras recovered from the realm of the nagas form the doctrinal basis of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka or Middle Way view. Its philosophical view quickly became the basis from which innumerable practitioners, yogis and great masters achieved direct perception of emptiness of inherent existence, which is known as Shunyata in Sanskrit. Realization of emptiness and Bodhichitta are the means from which a practitioner becomes fully enlightened. Therefore, the study of the Perfection of Wisdom texts and Madhyamaka from an integral part of Tibetan monastic curriculum and the doctrinal basis for contemplation and practice.

References:

1. Lobsang N. Tsonawa (1984), Indian Buddhist Pundits
2. New Delhi. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
3. Berzin Archives