Two Traditions in the Madhyamaka-Prāsaṅgika School: Buddhapālita and Candrakīrti

There are two schools in the Mahāyāna Buddhist school of Madhyamaka, namely Prāsaṅgika, the more radical one, according to which absolutely all propositions and theories are empty, for every concept in them refers only to other concepts but not to the extraconceptual reality, and Svātantrika that allows the existence of propositions sensible on the level of relative reality. But in Prāsaṅgika itself there were two traditions that differed not in the principles of philosophy but in the character of commenting the basic Madhyamaka text, “Root stanzas on the Middle Way” by Nāgārjuna. These traditions were represented in the commentaries by Buddhapālita (the 5th–6th centuries) and Candrakīrti (the 7th century). Candrakīrti’s commentary is based on Nāgārjuna’s autocommentary Akutobhaya to a much greater extent than Buddhapālita’s one. The latter presents a tradition of commenting Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā that originates not from Nāgārjuna himself but from a disciple of his.