The famous 18th century Gelugpa scholar lCang skya Rol pa’i rdo rje (1717-1786) finished his famous philosophical work on tenets, the Grub pa’i mtha’i rnam par bzhag pa between 1736 and 1746. He deals with the Sarvāstivadins in chapter eight (24 pages in the ‘Bras spungs sGo mang edition), with the Sautrāntikas in chapter nine (21 pages), with Vijñānavādins in chapter ten (86 pages), with the Svātantrika-Mādhyamika in chapter eleven (102 pages), and with PrāsaGgika-Mādhyamika in chapter twelve (77 pages). Chapters one to seven are devoted to an explanation of non-Buddhist schools. According to general consensus, his work is the summa magna of presentations of Indian philosophy produced by Tibetan scholars. The second lCang skya lama was the teacher of Thu’u kwan bLo bzang chos kyi nyi ma (1737-1802) who composed another major presentation of tenets which is generally referred to as lCang skya grub mtha’the structure of which is close to ’Jam dbyangs bzhad pa’i rdo rje’s Great Exposition of Tenets. To mention in passing, the title of the third Thu’u kwan’s famous exposition of tenets, finished in 1801) is Crystal Mirror (Grub mtha’ shel gyi me long). It seems that up to now no local scholar has written on lCang skya’s Exposition of Tenets. Thus I chose its chapter on the Mādhyamika school and translated it in two parts, The Life and Works of Nāgārjuna and The Mādhyamika School in India. Any criticism from scholars home and abroad is welcome. The Tibetan text with textcritical notes is provided as appendix.
