Buddhapālita’s Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way

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“Buddhapālita’s commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is of the first importance among Indian Madhyamaka texts. It is not only the earliest detailed treatment of Nāgārjuna’s masterpiece, but it is the foundation of the entire Prāsaṅgika tradition that represents the pinnacle of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophical thought. Buddhapālita opens the structure of Nāgārjuna’s arguments and shows us just how to read this difficult verse treatise. Dr. Coghlan offers this Indian classic to the contemporary Western reader through an elegant translation, at once lexically precise, philosophically sensitive, and immediately accessible.”
—Jay Garfield, Smith College

“The Indian commentarial literature is an indispensable key to Nāgārjuna’s masterpiece, the Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way. Buddhapālita’s commentary occupies a central place amongst the early works on this foundational Madhyamaka text. I am delighted to see that Ian Coghlan’s lucid translation opens a door to the entirety of Buddhapālita’s profound explanations of the intricacies of Nāgārjuna’s thought to an English-speaking audience for the first time. This is a major milestone in the Western study of Madhyamaka and will be an essential resource for students of the Asian philosophical tradition.”
—Jan Westerhoff, University of Oxford

“Ian Coghlan provides a welcome introduction to Buddhapālita, an important Buddhist philosopher whose work influenced the much better known Madhyamaka commentator, Chandrakīrti. Coghlan’s work, Buddhapālita’s Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way, delivers a clear, concise, and accessible English translation of Buddhapālita’s interpretive commentary on Nāgārjuna’s terse and sometimes enigmatic verses. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Madhyamaka arguments against Nāgārjuna’s Abhidharma opponents’ views and interested in these Madhyamaka proponents’ persuasive arguments for cultivating insight into emptiness.”—Karen Lang, University of Virginia (emeritus)