The author deals with the thirteen genuine works of Nagarjuna. The first six are mainly dialectical works such as Mulamadhyamakakarika, Sunyatasaptati, Vigrahavyavartani, Vaidalyaprakarana, Vyavaharasiddhi, Yuktisastika followed by the remaining seven which are chiefly didactic texts - Catuhstava, Ratnavali, Prafityasamutpadahrdaya-karika, Sutrasamuccaya, Bodhicitta-vivarana, Suhrllekha, and Bodhisambhara (ka). Thus he roughly follows the prescriptive distinction between Yukti and Agama. Although it will be a fascinating task to trace the impact of Nagarjuna's writings on the subsequent development inside and outside the domain of Buddhist thinking, the present study has to some extent paved the way for such research. Chr. Lindtner's desire to treat all the works ascribed to Nagarjuna in one way or another has thus made it rather wide in its scope which does inevitably entail that numerous details or points of minor significance are tacitly passed by.
This scholarly study shall immensely help students and scholars in general and Mahayanist researchers of Buddhism in particular. |
