Historical person — Aryadeva, Dignaga, Nathamuni (UPSC Prelims PYQ 2022)

With reference to Indian history, consider the following pairs:

Aryadeva was a Buddhist philosopher, not a Jaina scholar. He was a disciple of Nagarjuna, associated with the Madhyamaka school of philosophy. Aryadeva’s Hundred Verses Treatise (Bai lun) was one of the three basic texts of the Chinese Madhyamaka school founded by the central Asian monk Kumarajiva.

The founder of the Madhyamaka school was Nagarjuna (2nd century CE). His most important work was the Mula-Madhyamaka-Karika (Root Verses on the Middle). The idea of shunyata (emptiness) is an important feature of this work.
Idea of Sunyata: Shunyata does not mean that nothing exists. It means that appearances are misleading, and that permanent selves and substances do not exist.
Later important thinkers of the Madhyamaka school included Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Bhavaviveka, Chandrakirti, and Shantideva.

Dignaga was one of the main Mahayana thinkers, including Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Asanga, Aryadeva, and Buddhapalita. These scholars significantly advanced Mahayana Buddhist philosophy and logic, with their texts forming the foundation for subsequent Buddhist thought.
Their contributions include intricate analyses of emptiness, perception, and epistemology, which deeply influenced both Buddhist and non-Buddhist intellectual traditions in India and beyond.

Early medieval Tamil literature includes the inspired and intense devotional poetry of the Vaishnava saints (Alvars) and Shaiva saints (Nayanars or Nayanmars) and their hagiographies. Vaishnava poetry took off with the compositions of Peyalvar, Puttalvar, and Poikaialvar. In the 10th century, Nathamuni collected the Alvar hymns into the canon known as the Nalayira Divya Prabandham. The Alvarvaipavam is a sacred biography of the Vaishnava saints.

Shaiva devotional literature began with the compositions of Tirumular and Karaikal Ammaiyar.
The hymns of the Nayanar saints were compiled in the 10th century by Nambi Andar Nambi and this compilation formed the core of the Shaiva canon, the Tirumurai.
Nambi also wrote a work called the Tiruttondar Tiruvantati about the saints.
In the 12th century, the accounts of the Shaiva saints were collected in a text called the Periyapuranam.
All these texts provide valuable insights into the religious and social history of early medieval South India.