Controversies over Causation in Candrakirti's Prasannapada

Researcher: Dr Goran Kardaś, Visiting Britisha Academy Scholar. Candrakīrti, the 7th century Indian Buddhist of the Madhyamaka school, in the lenghty first chapter of his commentary (Prasannapadā) to Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakākarikā critically evaluates earlier Buddhist interpretations of the central Buddhist notion of causation. The commentary to that chapter is framed as a series of alternative explanations “offered” by an anonymous Buddhist of the Abhidharma tradition in defence of the reality of causation which then serve as an imaginary inducement for Nāgārjuna’s critical respond and Candrakīrti’s further clarifications. Though treated by him as if belonging to a single doctrinal position, these are rather competing and not alternative explanations actually advanced by different Abhidharma Buddhist schools. My research is therefore focused on identifying all of these explanations as to their proper philosophical layout in Abhidharma Buddhist schools. The next step is to scrutinize whether all of these schools upheld the concept of the real causation occurring between real things which idea forms the very base of Candrakīrti’s criticism.