Proto-Madhyamaka in the Pāli Canon Revisited: Early Buddhism, Gandhāra and the Origin of the Prajñāpāramitā

Abstract

Buddhist Studies has largely overlooked Luis O. Gómez’s ‘Proto-Madhyamaka’ thesis, according to which apophatic thought resembling later Madhyamaka is found in the Pāli canon. Consequently, little progress has been made in understanding the history of early Buddhist thought, from the Buddha to Nāgārjuna. According to the standard account, a period of spiritual pragmatism, in the canonical suttas, gave way to the reductionism of the Abhidharma, which in turn inspired the Prajñāpāramitā and so laid the foundations for Madhyamaka. Based on Gómez’s thesis, this paper suggests a different scheme: that in the late canonical period, an apophatic tradition was transmitted in the western lineage of Kaccāna, before reaching Gandhāra where it was reformulated as the Prajñāpāramitā.