A Discussion of Sara McClintock and John Dunne's translation of Nāgārjuna's Precious Garland (Ratnāvalī)

Both classical and contemporary scholars have raised critical questions regarding the consequences of Nāgārjuna’s analysis of emptiness for ethics and politics. If all distinctions, phenomena, values, ideas—even suffering, karmic fruit, vulnerable sentient bodies, and ethics—are empty of inherent existence, what does this mean for how we act in the world, both as individuals and as members of social and political groups? Does the Madhyamaka analysis of emptiness undermine ethics and political values? And if not, what is the basis and motivation right action in a world in which suffering is ultimately empty of inherent existence?

Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland: A Teaching for a King (Rājaparikathāratnāvalī), is widely regarded as one of the most important Indian Buddhist texts to address this question of the relationship between Madhyamaka ideas of emptiness and ethics and politics. Despite its stature in Buddhist traditions and contemporary scholarship, it has not received as much attention as other texts attributed to Nāgārjuna. This is perhaps because it is a dense, enigmatic, and provocative text, primarily devoted to addressing leadership and the Buddhist path, integrating philosophy, ethics, politics, and the aspiration to become a bodhisattva.

While many scholars have worked on the Ratnāvalī until now there has been no English translation based primarily on the Sanskrit edition. And while there have been several recent systematic commentaries by Tibetan scholars, until now, no recent Western scholar has taken on such a project. Sara McClintock and John Dunne’s 2024 publication of Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland (Ratnāvalī) in the Wisdom Publications series “Classics of Indian Buddhism” is thus a major contribution. It is the first English translation of the text in more than four decades. It is also the first English translation to primarily follow the Sanskrit edition and secondarily the Tibetan. (While there is now a complete Sanskrit text recently discovered at Drepung Monastery in Tibet, McClintock and Dunne did not have access to it and used an earlier Sanskrit edition with lacunae which required a Tibetan edition to fill.)

While the translation itself constitutes a significant contribution to scholarship on Nāgārjuna, Buddhist ethics, and Buddhist politics, McClintock and Dunne have also provided an accessible and comprehensive introduction, of great benefit to scholars and students alike. Their work is informed especially by the Indian commentarial tradition, especially Ajitmitra’s commentary, and secondarily Tibetan commentaries. McClintock and Dunne also show how this classic text can speak to some of our contemporary ethical and political concerns. Indeed, they invite readers into a translation not just into English, but a translation into our contemporary world, an invitation to explore what the text asks of us with our own power and privilege. “To the extent that this privilege as contemporary readers includes some degree of power, the Precious Garland is asking us to see how the monk’s guidance to the king might apply to the power that we hold, and how we might wield that power with wisdom and compassion. We may not be kings, but we each have our own domains of power and influence, sometimes obvious, sometimes unrecognized” (22).

Translations, despite their tremendous significance in the study of Buddhist texts, are sometimes taken for granted. But McClintock and Dunne’s translation, with its lengthy introduction, and followed by both the Sanskrit and Tibetan working editions, is a major achievement and an important contribution to scholarship. For this reason we are proposing a round-table discussion of the translation and introduction.

We are proposing a 90-minute roundtable devoted to Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland. The panel will consist of seven scholars giving six-minute presentations focusing on a particular question in relationship to the book. Then McClintock and Dunne will have twenty minutes for their responses. Finally, there will be twenty minutes for a broader discussion involving the panel and audience.

The seven scholars who have agreed to participate come from a variety of perspectives and disciplines in Buddhist Studies that are relevant to the book. One scholar has focused on questions of Buddhism and violence, including punishment and other violence that kings undertake. Another scholar will be focused on questions of Buddhist moral psychology. Two other scholars will be approaching the text primarily through questions of narrative, ways of reading, and narrative ethics. One of the scholars will be primarily interested in questions of Buddhist political philosophy. The final two scholars will address questions of the relationship between Nāgārjuna’s philosophy of emptiness and ethics. Together, these scholars will open up multiple questions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and social locations.