Mulamadhyamakakarika (मूलमध्यमककारिका - Mūlamadhyamakakārikā; དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ། dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa shes rab ces bya ba Uma Tsaway Tsikleur Jaypa Sherab Jayjawa; Root Verses on the Middle Way), preserved in the Tibetan Tripitaka as Toh Number 3824 and embedded within the commentaries of the Chinese Tripitaka as Taisho Number 1564, stands as the foundational philosophical treatise of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of Mahayana Buddhist thought, composed in India during the 2nd century or 3rd century by Nagarjuna (नागार्जुन - Nāgārjuna; ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ། klu sgrub Ludrup; flourishing circa 150–250). Consisting of twenty-seven chapters and approximately four hundred and forty-nine concise Sanskrit verses, this monumental Shastra systematically elucidates the profound Prajnaparamita sutras preached by Shakyamuni Buddha at Vulture Peak, transforming the experiential realization of emptiness (शून्यता - śūnyatā; སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། stong pa nyid Tongpanyid) into an unassailable dialectical method that reshaped the entire trajectory of Indian, Tibetan, and East Asian philosophy.
Opening with a famous dedicatory salutation to Shakyamuni Buddha as the supreme teacher who proclaimed dependent origination (प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद - pratītyasamutpāda; རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ། rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba Tenching Drelwar Jungwa) characterized by the eight negations—neither ceasing nor arising, neither annihilated nor permanent, neither coming nor going, neither differentiated nor identical—the Mulamadhyamakakarika immediately establishes the central thesis of the Middle Way. Nagarjuna demonstrates that any phenomenon possessing independent, self-sufficient essence (स्वभाव - svabhāva; རང་བཞིན། rang bzhin Rangzhin) could never arise from causes and conditions, change over time, or cease. Consequently, true right view avoids the twin precipices of eternalism (clinging to inherent existence) and nihilism (denying conventional causality), steering cleanly through the center of reality.
Across its opening chapters—examining conditions, motion, the six sense faculties, the five aggregates (skandhas), the elemental constituents, desire and the desirer, and conditioned phenomena—Nagarjuna employs relentless reductio ad absurdum reasoning (prasanga) to dismantle every category of reified ontology advanced by contemporary Abhidharma scholastics and non-Buddhist realist schools. By analyzing all four logical possibilities (the tetralemma or catuskoti)—whether things arise from themselves, from something other, from both, or without any cause—Nagarjuna proves that no entity can withstand ultimate ontological scrutiny, thereby revealing anatta (non-self) and emptiness of self not merely in persons, but across every subtle atom and mental moment of existence.
In its middle chapters, the Mulamadhyamakakarika turns its analytical lens onto the core experiential structures of samsara, examining suffering (dukkha), action and agent, prior existence, fire and fuel, cyclic existence, karma and its fruits, selfhood, time, continuity and dissolution, and the nature of the Tathagata. Rather than destroying moral responsibility or spiritual practice, Nagarjuna demonstrates in the celebrated twenty-fourth chapter (Examination of the Four Noble Truths) that precisely because all things are empty of inherent existence, karma, rebirth, anicca, ethical conduct, precepts, generosity, merit, and the Noble Eightfold Path function with complete causal coherence. As Nagarjuna famously declares, for whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible; for whom emptiness is impossible, nothing is possible.
Philosophically, the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of the Mulamadhyamakakarika articulate the cornerstone doctrines of the Two Truths (satyadvaya) and the non-duality of samsara and nirvana. Nagarjuna explains that Buddhas teach the Dharma relying upon two truths: conventional worldly truth (samvritisatya), through which sentient beings take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, cultivate mindfulness, meditation, concentration, compassion, loving-kindness, and bodhicitta, and liberate beings across the six realms; and ultimate truth (paramarthasatya), the direct realization of emptiness free from conceptual fabrication. In a breathtaking philosophical culmination, Nagarjuna proclaims that there is not the slightest ontological difference between samsara and nirvana, as both share the exact same nature of dependent co-arising and emptiness.
In its final two chapters—examining the twelve links of dependent origination and the twenty-seven speculative philosophical views—the Mulamadhyamakakarika demonstrates how uprooting ignorance and the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion through non-attachment and penetrating wisdom brings all mental proliferation (prapanca) to rest. By abandoning every dogmatic thesis rooted in self-grasping, the practitioner realizes innate Buddha-nature, attains unshakable equanimity, and embodies true renunciation and skillful means without falling into either metaphysical absolutism or skeptical despair.
Over the centuries following Nagarjuna's life in India, the Mulamadhyamakakarika inspired a rich commentarial tradition that shaped both Prasangika Madhyamaka and Svatantrika Madhyamaka philosophy. In India, towering commentaries were authored by Nagarjuna himself (the Akutobhaya, Toh Number 3829), Buddhapalita (Toh Number 3842), Bhavaviveka (the Prajnapradipa, Toh Number 3853), and Candrakirti (the monumental Prasannapada, Toh Number 3860). Meanwhile, in China, Kumarajiva translated Pingala's commentary into the Chinese Tripitaka as the Zhonglun (中論, Taisho Number 1564) in 409, establishing the Sanlun (Three Treatises) school and profoundly influencing Tiantai, Huayan, Chan, and East Asian Buddhism.
In Tibet, the Mulamadhyamakakarika became the supreme philosophical benchmark across all four major traditions—Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug—inspiring landmark commentaries and hymns by Atisha, Longchenpa, Tsongkhapa (who composed both the Rigs-pa'i Rgya-mtsho and In Praise of Dependent Origination), Gorampa Sonam Senge, Patrul Rinpoche, and Mipham Rinpoche. Standing forever alongside the works of Aryadeva, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Shantideva, Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika remains one of humanity's greatest intellectual and spiritual monuments, illuminating the timeless path to full awakening.