Madhyamika Karika, the basic text of Madhyamika School, was composed by

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2021 Paper I Q41?

A. Correct — A, Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna, who worked in the second century CE, is the founder of the Madhyamika or Middle Way school of Mahayana Buddhism, and the Madhyamika Karika is its foundational text. Its argument is the doctrine of shunyata, that all phenomena are empty of independent self-existence because everything arises in dependence on something else. He is associated with the Satavahana country in the Deccan, and Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh, a major Buddhist centre excavated in the twentieth century, carries his name. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)Nagarjuna
(b)Asanga
(c)Vasubandhu
(d)Dharmakirti

Answer

Why

Correct — A, Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna, who worked in the second century CE, is the founder of the Madhyamika or Middle Way school of Mahayana Buddhism, and the Madhyamika Karika is its foundational text. Its argument is the doctrine of shunyata, that all phenomena are empty of independent self-existence because everything arises in dependence on something else. He is associated with the Satavahana country in the Deccan, and Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh, a major Buddhist centre excavated in the twentieth century, carries his name.

Why the others are wrong

(b)Asanga — Asanga founded the other great Mahayana school, the Yogachara or Vijnanavada, which holds that consciousness rather than emptiness is the ground of experience. He is usually placed in the fourth century CE.
(c)Vasubandhu — Vasubandhu, Asanga's younger brother, wrote the Abhidharmakosha and later became a leading Yogachara thinker. He belongs to the rival school, not to the Madhyamika.
(d)Dharmakirti — Dharmakirti was a Buddhist logician of about the seventh century CE, known for works on epistemology and inference. He came centuries after the Madhyamika Karika was written.

Concept

Mahayana Buddhism developed two major philosophical schools. The Madhyamika, founded by Nagarjuna, argues that all things are empty of intrinsic nature and that this emptiness is the middle way between the extremes of existence and non-existence. The Yogachara, founded by Asanga and elaborated by Vasubandhu, treats mind or consciousness as fundamental. A later tradition of Buddhist logic, running through Dignaga and Dharmakirti, developed the theory of knowledge and inference used by both.

The four names all belong to Mahayana philosophy, so the item cannot be answered by eliminating obvious outsiders. The most economical way to hold them is by pairing school to founder: Madhyamika with Nagarjuna and shunyata, Yogachara with Asanga and Vasubandhu and consciousness, logic with Dignaga and Dharmakirti. One caution is worth carrying. The Milinda-panha, the dialogue between King Menander and a Buddhist monk, is often misattributed to Nagarjuna — the monk in it is Nagasena, and UPSC has set a question that turns on exactly that confusion.

Key facts

Nagarjuna founded the Madhyamika school and composed the Madhyamika Karika, in about the second century CE.
The central doctrine of the school is shunyata, the emptiness of intrinsic nature in all phenomena.
Asanga founded the Yogachara or Vijnanavada school; Vasubandhu, his brother, wrote the Abhidharmakosha.
Dharmakirti was a Buddhist logician of about the seventh century CE.
The monk of the Milinda-panha is Nagasena, not Nagarjuna.

Study next

Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism and the differences between themThe Madhyamika and Yogachara schools of Mahayana philosophyThe four Buddhist councils and what each settledBuddhist art of the Gandhara, Mathura and Amaravati schoolsMajor Buddhist sites in India and what has been found at each

Common traps

Attributing the Milinda-panha to Nagarjuna; the monk in that dialogue is Nagasena.
Placing Vasubandhu in the Madhyamika school rather than the Yogachara.
Assuming Dharmakirti is a contemporary of Nagarjuna; several centuries separate them.

An author-to-text item drawn from Buddhist philosophy; UPSC asks the same body of names through matched pairs of literary work and author, where Nagarjuna appears as a deliberate wrong pairing.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2023_GS1_Q462023Open & attempt →

With reference to ancient Indian History, consider the following pairs: Literary work — Author 1. Devichandragupta — Bilhana 2. Hammira-Mahakavya — Nayachandra Suri 3. Milinda-panha — Nagarjuna 4. Nitivakyamrita — Somadeva Suri How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?

(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) Only three
(d) All four

Answer(b) Only two

Its third pair is the exact trap this item guards against — the Milinda-panha is wrongly attributed to Nagarjuna there, and the dialogue is in fact with the monk Nagasena.

UPSC_2020_GS1_Q222020Open & attempt →

With reference to the religious history of India, consider the following statements: 1. Sthaviravadins belong to Mahayana Buddhism. 2. Lokottaravadin sect was an offshoot of Mahasanghika sect of Buddhism. 3. The deification of Buddha by Mahasanghikas fostered the Mahayana Buddhism. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(b) 2 and 3 only

Places the sects and schools of Buddhism that this question's four philosophers belong within, and separates the Mahayana tradition from the older Sthaviravada.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The doctrine of shunyata is central to which school of Buddhist philosophy?
- (a)Yogachara
- (b)Madhyamika
- (c)Sautrantika
- (d)Vaibhashika
Answer(b) Madhyamika — Nagarjuna's school, which holds that phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature.
practice — not a real PYQ
The Abhidharmakosha was composed by
- (a)Nagarjuna
- (b)Asanga
- (c)Vasubandhu
- (d)Dignaga
Answer(c) Vasubandhu — the brother of Asanga and a leading figure of the Yogachara school.