नागार्जुन
Nagarjuna (150 - 250 CE) is widely considered the most important Buddhist philosopher after the historical Buddha. Along with his disciple Aryadeva, he is credited with founding the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. Nagarjuna is also credited with developing the philosophy of the Prajnaparamita sutras and, in some sources, with having revealed these scriptures in the world, having recovered them from the nagas (dragons). Furthermore, he is traditionally supposed to have written several treatises on rasayana alchemy as well as serving a term as the head of Nalanda university. Very little is reliably known of the life of Nagarjuna, since the surviving accounts were written in Chinese and Tibetan, centuries after his death. According to some accounts, Nagarjuna was originally from Southern India. Some scholars believe that Nagarjuna was an advisor to a king of the Satavahana Dynasty. Archaeological evidence at Amaravata indicates that if this is true, the king may have been Yajna Sri satakarni, who ruled between 167 and 196 CE. On the basis of this association, Nagarjuna is conventionally placed at around 150-250 CE. According to a 4th/5th-century biography translated by Kumarajiva, Nagarjuna was born into a Brahmin family and later became a Buddhist.
Some sources claim that Nagarjuna lived on the mountain of Sriparvata in his later years, near the city that would later be called Nagarjunakonda ("Hill of Nagarjuna"). Nagarjunakonda was located in what is now the Nalgonda/ Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Some sources claim that Nagarjuna lived on the mountain of Sriparvata in his later years, near the city that would later be called Nagarjunakonda ("Hill of Nagarjuna"). Nagarjunakonda was located in what is now the Nalgonda/ Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
- Relativity : Nagarjuna also taught the idea of relativity; in the Ratnavali, he gives the example that shortness exists only in relation to the idea of length. The determination of a thing or object is only possible in relation to other things or objects, especially by way of contrast. He held that the relationship between the ideas of "short" and "long" is not due to intrinsic nature (svabhava).
- Ayurvedic physician : According to Frank John Ninivaggi, Nagarjuna was also a practitioner of Ayurveda, or traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine. First described in the Sanskrit medical treatise entitled Sushruta Samhita (of which he was the compiler of the redaction), many of his conceptualizations, such as his descriptions of the circulatory system and blood tissue (described as rakta dhātu) and his pioneering work on the therapeutic value of specially treated minerals knowns as bhasmas, which earned him the title of the "father of iatrochemistry.