The Akṣaraśataka — "One Hundred Letters" — is a compressed Madhyamaka philosophical text preserved in the Degé Tengyur (Tohoku 3834). In twenty-one aphoristic statements, an unknown author systematically dismantles the possibility of conceptual grasping: identity fails, difference fails, existence and non-existence both require proof that cannot be given, causes depend on what they cause, conventions are ungrounded, reasons are empty, and even this analysis is merely one-sided — like a dream, like the very thesis it tries to prove.
The title refers to the approximate syllable count of the Sanskrit original — a genre of philosophical argument compressed into exactly one hundred syllables. The Sanskrit is lost; the Tibetan survives as the sole witness. No previous English translation is known to exist. This is the first.
Homage to glorious Vajra Mañjuśrī!
Things are not identical.
Nor are they different — it is the same.
Existence itself must be proven.
Non-existence also must be proven.
Causes do not exist —
they do not, because of dependence.
Desire does not establish existence.
Conventions are ungrounded.
Reasons are without purpose.
Self-nature is merely declared.
In unity there are faults.
In difference, things do not exist.
Grasping is impossible.
Things are not perceived.
What exists is not produced.
In those, there is no arising.
The conditioned does not exist.
This is merely one-sided.
Like a dream.
Names are not things —
like what is to be proven.
The One Hundred Letters is complete.
Colophon
The Akṣaraśataka (Skt. Akṣaraśataka, Tib. ཡི་གེ་བརྒྱ་པ, Yi ge brgya pa) is a short Madhyamaka text of unknown authorship preserved in the Degé Tengyur. The title literally means "one hundred syllables" — a genre convention indicating a philosophical argument compressed into the smallest possible compass. In twenty-one statements spanning a single folio side, the text runs through the central Madhyamaka arguments against conceptual elaboration: the impossibility of identity and difference, the groundlessness of existence and non-existence, the dependence of causes, the failure of conventions and reasons, and the dreamlike nature of all phenomena. The final line — "like what is to be proven" — turns the text on itself, acknowledging that its own arguments stand on the same empty ground as the theses they dismantle.
This is the first text from the Madhyamaka section of the Tengyur to appear in the archive. The ten preceding Tengyur translations were devotional hymns from the bsTod tshogs (Collected Praises). The Akṣaraśataka opens a new frontier: not praise but philosophy, not bowing but dismantling.
The original Sanskrit is lost. The Tibetan translation survives in the Degé Tengyur, Madhyamaka section (དབུ་མ), Volume 96 (ཙ), Tohoku 3834, folio 138b, lines 1–4. The text was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by Bhikṣu Kumāraprajñā (Tib. བན་དེ་གཞོན་ནུ་ཤེས་རབ, ban de gzhon nu shes rab) and revised by Lotsāwa Drakjor Sherab (Tib. ལོ་ཙྪ་བ་གྲགས་འབྱོར་ཤེས་རབ, lo tsA ba grags 'byor shes rab).
Good Works Translation from Tibetan. Translated by Lhundrup (Tibetan Translator tulku), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). The translation was made directly from the Tibetan by the tulku, without consulting MITRA or any existing English translation — no prior English translation is known to exist.
Companion text: Nāgārjuna's Commentary on the One Hundred Letters (Akṣaraśataka-nāma-vṛtti, D3835) unfolds each of these twenty-one aphorisms into a formal philosophical debate. It is available in this archive.
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Source Text: ཡི་གེ་བརྒྱ་པ
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (Esukhia/derge-tengyur, GitHub, CC0). Volume 096 (དབུ་མ ཙ), folio 138b, lines 1–4. Editorial markers and folio references removed.
༄༅༅། །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 source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition, maintained by Esukhia (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur). Licensed CC0 (public domain). The Degé Tengyur is the standard critical edition of the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur, originally printed from woodblocks at Degé Parkhang, Kham, Tibet. The digital text was transcribed and proofread by Esukhia under the direction of Émilie Arrago-Boruah.
Translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by Bhikṣu Kumāraprajñā (ban de gzhon nu shes rab) and revised by Lotsāwa Drakjor Sherab (lo tsA ba grags 'byor shes rab). Translator colophon from the 84000 catalogue entry.
This is believed to be the first English translation of this text.
Other works by Nāgārjuna in the Good Work Library: A Drop of Nourishment for the People · Awakening the Unawakened · Commentary on the Essence of the Dharma-Realm · Commentary on the One Hundred Letters · Commentary on the Refutation of Objections · Commentary on the Seventy Verses on Emptiness · Deliverance from Hell · Discourse on Giving · Discourse on Transcending Existence · Exposition of the Heart of Dependent Origination · Praise for Pleasing Sentient Beings · Praise in Adoration · Praise of the Compassion of Mañjuśrī · Praise of the Dharmadhātu · Praise of the Incomparable One · Praise of the Inconceivable · Praise of the Perfection of Wisdom · Praise of the Stūpas of the Eight Great Holy Sites · Praise of the Three Bodies · Praise of the Twelve Deeds · Praise of the Vajra of Mind · Praise of the World-Transcendent · Praise of Ultimate Reality · Praise Transcending Praise · Refutation of Objections · Seventy Verses on Emptiness · Sixty Verses on Reasoning · The Akutobhayā · The Door for Entering into the Three Bodies · The Dream Wish-Fulfilling Jewel · The Hundred Wisdoms · The Rite of Generating the Awakening Mind · The Staff of Wisdom · The Ultimate Praise of Mañjuśrī · The Vaidaḷyasūtra · Transference of Existence · Twenty Verses on the Great Vehicle · Unsurpassed Praise · Verses on the Heart of Dependent Origination · Verses on the Rice Seedling
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