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 Ma