AK Warder famously asked the question, “Was Nagarjuna a Mahayanist”. This was followed up by David Kalupahana, who argued at length that there was nothing Mahayanist in Nagarjuna. However more recent scholarship has shown that there are indeed specifically Mahayanist references in the Mulamadhyamakakarika. Nevertheless, it remains the case that Nagarjuna—not to mention Vasubandhu and Asanga—was strongly grounded on the early suttas, and used them as his primary references.
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