Vasubandhu(Fl. Fourth or Fifth Century Ce)
Vasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist philosopher who made significant contributions to the clarification and development of the Indian Buddhist schools of philosophy traditionally classified as the Vaibhāṣika (or Sarvāstivāda), the Sautrāntika, and the Yogācāra (or Cittamātra). Erich Frauwallner argued (1951), on the basis of a study of Vasubandhu's biographers, Paramārtha (499–569), Bus-ton (1290–1364) and Tāranātha (1575–1634), that there were two Vasubandhus, one who composed Yogācāra works and lived in the fourth century CE, and another who lived in the fifth century CE and composed treatises from the Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika points of view. But later studies (Jaini 1959, Anacker 1998) disputed Frauwallner's argument and advanced the hypothesis that there was only one author of these works and that he lived in the fourth century CE According to Buddhist tradition, Vasubandhu was at first an orthodox follower of the Vaibhāṣika school, and, after having allied himself with the Sautrāntika school, was convinced by his half-brother, Asaṇa, to accept the Mahāyāna scriptures (which were not accepted by the Vaibhāṣikas or Sautrāntikas) and to adopt the theses of the Yogācāra school.
Vasubandhu's Contributions to the VaibhĀṢika and SautrĀntika Philosophies
Vasubandhu's contribution to the Vaibhāṣika philosophy is his masterly treatise the Abhidharmakośa (Treasury of knowledge).
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