by Āryadeva
The Akṣaraśataka is one of the shortest texts in the Madhyamaka section of the Degé Tengyur — twenty-one bare propositions compressed into roughly one hundred Tibetan syllables. Each statement stands as a negation: identity is denied, difference is denied, existence requires proof, causes do not stand, reasons are empty, names are not things. The text reads like the skeleton key to Madhyamaka philosophy — every major argument of Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā compressed to a single line.
Attributed to Āryadeva (c. 3rd century CE), the principal disciple of Nāgārjuna. The text survives only in Tibetan translation as Tohoku 3834 in the Degé Tengyur, Madhyamaka section (Volume ཙ), folios 138b.1–138b.4. An auto-commentary, the Akṣaraśataka-nāma-vṛtti (D3835), immediately follows in the same volume. No freely available English translation has existed until now.
Homage to the glorious Vajra of Mañjuśrī!
Entities are not identical.
Nor are they different — likewise.
Existence itself must be proved.
Non-existence likewise must be proved.
Causes do not exist.
They do not, because they depend.
Through assertion alone, nothing exists.
Convention is not established.
Reasons are without substance.
Nature is what must be expressed.
Oneness itself has faults.
In otherness, entities do not exist.
It cannot be grasped.
Entities are not seen.
What exists is not produced.
In those there is no arising.
There is nothing compounded.
It is merely one side.
It is like a dream.
A name is not an entity.
It is like what must be proved.
Colophon
Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan by Suzu (鈴), translator for the New Tianmu Anglican Church, April 2026. Translated independently from the Degé Tengyur (Esukhia digital edition), D3834, Madhyamaka section, Volume ཙ, folios 138b.1–138b.4. No existing English translation was available for consultation — none has been published. This is the first freely available English translation.
The twenty-one propositions form an itinerary of Madhyamaka negation. They deny identity (1–2), demand proof for both existence and non-existence (3–4), dismantle causation (5–6), reject the authority of assertion and convention (7–8), empty the tools of logic itself (9), reduce nature to language (10), fault both unity and plurality (11–12), deny the possibility of grasping or perceiving entities (13–14), negate production and arising (15–17), restrict all claims to partiality (18), invoke the dream-analogy (19), sever the link between names and things (20), and close by comparing the whole enterprise to what itself requires proof (21).
The homage line (འཇམ་པའི་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།) indicates classification under the Madhyamaka division of the Tengyur, where texts on wisdom pay homage to Mañjuśrī.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ཡི་གེ་བརྒྱ་པ། (Akṣaraśataka)
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur (github.com/Esukhia/derge-tengyur), file 096_དབུ་མ།_ཙ.txt, lines 2177–2180. Folio 138b.1–138b.4. CC0 license. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཀྵ་ར་ཤ་ཏ་ཀ །བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཡི་གེ་བརྒྱ་པ། འཇམ་པའི་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
།དངོས་པོ་རྣམས་གཅིག་པ་ཉིད་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།གཞན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་དེ་བཞིན་ནོ།
།ཡོད་པ་ཉིད་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།མེད་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ་བའོ།
།རྒྱུ་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།མ་ཡིན་ཏེ་ལྟོས་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།
།འདོད་པས་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།བརྡ་མ་གྲུབ་བོ།
།གཏན་ཚིགས་དག་དོན་མེད་དོ།
།རང་བཞིན་བརྗོད་པར་བྱའོ།
།གཅིག་ཉིད་ལ་སྐྱོན་ཡོད་དོ།
།གཞན་ཉིད་ན་དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།འཛིན་པར་མི་ནུས་སོ།
།དངོས་པོ་མཐོང་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།ཡོད་པ་ནི་བྱ་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།དེ་དག་ལ་སྐྱེ་བ་མེད་དོ།
།འདུས་བྱས་མེད་དོ།
།ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་ཙམ་མོ།
།རྨི་ལམ་དང་མཚུངས་སོ།
།མིང་ནི་དངོས་པོ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།
།བསྒྲུབ་བྱ་དང་མཚུངས་སོ།
ཡི་གེ་བརྒྱ་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Tibetan text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur, an open-access (CC0) transcription of the Degé woodblock print housed at the Degé Printing House, Sichuan, China. The Degé Tengyur was carved 1737–1744 CE under the patronage of the king of Degé.
Catalogue number: Tohoku 3834 (Akṣaraśataka). Volume ཙ (tsa), Madhyamaka (དབུ་མ།) section. Folio 138b, lines 1–4.
The Sanskrit title preserved in the Tibetan colophon (ཨཀྵ་ར་ཤ་ཏ་ཀ) confirms the text's Indic origin. The Tibetan translation was produced during the Imperial or early Later Diffusion period by an unnamed translator team. The auto-commentary D3835 provides the expanded philosophical context for each proposition.
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