[German Version]

The Sanskrit word Mādhyamika refers to the members of the Madhyamaka (“middle”) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The founder of the school is the acclaimed Nāgārjuna (c. 2nd cent. ce), the author of, among other texts, the fundamental philosophical treatise of the school, which is known to the later tradition as the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The title of this work as well as the terms Madhyamaka and Mādhyamika as designations for the school and its members do not seem to have been used by Nāgārjuna himself and are probably later developme…