Bhavaviveka was the founder of the Svatantrika tradition of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhism. Madhyamaka is a Buddhist philosophical tradition that asserts that all phenomena are empty of self-nature or essence (Sanskrit: Svabhāva), that they have no intrinsic, independent reality apart from the causes and conditions from which they arise. ... A replica of an ancient statue of Gautama Buddha, found from Sarnath, near Varanasi Buddhism, a religion and philosophy from ancient India, is based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, of the Shakyas. ...

In this tradition reasoning is used to establish that phenomena (dharmas) have no self-nature, and further arguments to establish that the true nature of all phenomena is emptiness. This school differs from the predominant prasangika tradition in that the latter refrain from making any assertions whatsoever about the true nature of phenomena. The word dharma (Sanskrit; धर्म in the Devanagari script) or dhamma (Pali) is used in most or all philosophies and religions of Indian origin, Dharmic faiths, namely Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. ... Prasangika is a sub-school of Madhyamaka Buddhism that holds the method of logical consequence (prasanga) to be the only valid method of demonstrating the nature of the Two Truths to opponents in debate. ...