Quote by Nagarjuna: “Nothing exists on its own; all things arise in dependence.”

Nothing in the universe is truly independent or self-contained. Every thing — every person, event, idea — only exists because of its relationship to other things. This is a radical claim: there is no isolated, fixed 'self' anywhere.

Nagarjuna wrote during a period of intense philosophical debate within and around Buddhist communities in South Asia. His Mulamadhyamakakarika systematically refuted the notion that any phenomenon possesses inherent, independent existence — a position that challenged both Brahmanical and non-Madhyamaka Buddhist schools of the time.

Indian Buddhist philosopher of the second century CE whose Mulamadhyamakakarika established the Madhyamaka school of philosophy, one of the most influential strands of Buddhist thought. He developed the concept of sunyata (emptiness) with rigorous logical precision, arguing that all phenomena lack inherent existence. His work shaped Mahayana Buddhism across Asia.