The advent of the Madhyamaka as a school of systematic philosophy is rightly correlated with the figure of Nâgaijuna — the renowned philosopher saint of south India who lived at the end of the first century C.E. The Madhyamaka philosophy however had much earlier antecedents and is in large part anticipated in Buddhist literature of the very earliest period as has been noted by competent scholars. It is in this context that the Madhyamaka is said to represent the essence of the Buddha's teaching because it represents the fruition of the critical attitude which constitutes the real heart of Buddhism.