Āryadeva

Āryadeva was a Madhyamaka philosopher traditionally remembered as the direct disciple of Nāgārjuna and the author of the Catuḥśataka ('Four Hundred Verses'), which extends and defends Nāgārjuna's analysis of emptiness against rival positions. He is a genuine historical figure of roughly the 3rd century CE, though his precise dates and the details of his life (including his birthplace—a Sinhalese royal origin in the Tibetan sources versus a South Indian brahmin origin in the Chinese-transmitted biography) rest largely on later tradition. His work is central to the Indian Madhyamaka inheritance later carried into Tibet and East Asia.