Scholars generally place him in South India during the 2nd century CE. Traditional accounts state that he lived 400 years after the Buddha passed into nirvana (c. 5th-4th century BCE). Some biographies also state, however, that he lived for 600 years, apparently identifying him with a second Nagarjuna known for his Tantric (esoteric) writings. Two of the works attributed to Nagarjuna are verses of advice to a king, which suggests that he achieved some fame during his lifetime. Other sources indicate that he also served as abbot of a monastery and that he was the teacher of Aryadeva, the author of important Madhyamika texts. Numerous commentaries on Nagarjuna's works were composed in India, China, and Tibet.

Although he is best known in the West for his writings on emptiness, especially as set forth in his most famous work, the Mulamadhyamakakarika (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way), Nagarjuna wrote many other works on a wide range of topics (even when questions of attribution are taken into account). It is only from a broad assessment of these works that an adequate understanding of his thought can be gained.

Nagarjuna wrote as a Buddhist monk and as a proponent of the Mahayana (Sanskrit: Greater Vehicle) school, which emphasized the idea of the bodhisattva, or one who seeks to become a buddha; in several of his works he defended the Mahayana sutras as the authentic word of the Buddha. He compiled an anthology, entitled the Sutrasamuccaya (Compendium of Sutras), consisting of passages from 68 sutras, most of which were Mahayana texts. Nagarjuna is particularly associated with the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) sutras in this corpus. According to legend, he retrieved from the bottom of the sea a perfection-of-wisdom sutra that the Buddha had entrusted to the king of the nagas (water deities) for safekeeping. Nagarjuna also composed hymns of praise to the Buddha and expositions of Buddhist ethical practice.