Asanga was alleged to have received revelations from Maitreya and five of his works are attributed to this Bodhisattva who enjoyed considerable honour at this period.  It may be that the veneration for the Buddha of the future, the Messiah who would reign over his saints in a pure land, owed something to Persian influence which was strong in India during the decadence of the Kushans.[223] Both Mithraism and Manichaeism classified their adepts in various ranks, and the Yogacara doctors who delight in grading the progress of the Bodhisattva may have borrowed something from them.[224] Asanga’s doctrine of defilement (klesa) and purification may also owe something to Mani, as suggested by S. Levi.

In spite of his literary merits Asanga remains a doctor rather than a saint or poet.[225] His speculations have little to do with either Gotama or Amitabha and he was thus not in living touch with either the old or new schools.  His brother Vasubandhu had perhaps a greater position.  He is reckoned as the twentieth Patriarch and Tibetan tradition connects him with the worship of Amitabha.[226]

Paramartha’s life of Vasubandhu represents him as having frequented the court of Vikramaditya (to be identified with Candragupta I), who at first favoured the Sankhya philosophy but accorded some patronage to Buddhism.  During this period Vasubandhu was a Sarvastivadin but of liberal views[227] and while in this phase wrote the Abhidharma-kosa, a general exposition of the Abhidharma, mainly according to the views of the Vaibhashikas but not without criticism.  This celebrated work is not well known in Europe[228] but is still a text-book amongst Japanese Buddhist students.  It gained the esteem of all schools and we are given to understand that it presupposed the philosophy of the Vibhasha and of the Jnana-prasthana.  According to Paramartha the original work consisted of 600 aphorisms in verse which were sent by the author to the monks of Kashmir.  They approved of the composition but, as the aphorisms were concise, asked for fuller explanations.  Vasubandhu then expanded his verses into a prose commentary, but meanwhile his views had undergone a change and when he disapproved of any Vaibhashika doctrine, he criticized it.  This enlarged edition by no means pleased the brethren of Kashmir and called forth polemics.  He also wrote a controversial work against the Sankhya philosophy.

Late in life Vasubandhu, moved by the entreaties of his brother Asanga, became a devout Mahayanist and wrote in his old age Mahayanist treatises and commentaries.[229]

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 187:  The uncertainty as to the date of Kanishka naturally makes it uncertain whether he was the hero of these conquests.  Kashmir was certainly included in the dominions of the Kushans and was a favourite residence of Kanishka.  About 90 A.D. a Kushan king attacked Central Asia but was repulsed by the Chinese general Pan-Ch’ao.  Later, after the death of Pan-Ch’ao (perhaps about 103 A.D.), he renewed the attempt and conquered Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan.  See Vincent Smith, Early History of India, 3rd ed. pp. 253 ff.]