It is a concise and lucid introduction to the issues and personalities that dominated Indian Madhyamaka thought. As an example of the influential but little known Svatantrika branch of the Madhyamaka school, Jnanagarbha's work shows quite vividly how the commitment to reason in the search for ultimate truth shaped not only the dialogue between Madhyamaka thinkers and members of other Buddhist schools, but also the evolution of the Madhyamaka tadition itself.