Vasubandhu
? · Peshawar (Puruṣapura)
fl. c. 4th–5th c. CE; the 'one vs two Vasubandhus' question is a live scholarly debate
Vasubandhu is one of the most important philosophers in Buddhist history, author of the Abhidharmakośa—a masterly systematization (and partial critique) of Abhidharma scholasticism—and, after a traditional conversion to the Mahāyāna under his brother Asaṅga, of foundational Yogācāra works such as the Viṃśatikā and Triṃśikā. He is securely historical and active in roughly the 4th–5th century CE. A genuine scholarly debate—the 'two Vasubandhus' question—asks whether one author or two later conflated figures stand behind the Abhidharma and Yogācāra corpora; this is noted rather than resolved here. His traditional birth at Puruṣapura (Peshawar) accompanies that of Asaṅga.
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Peshawar (Puruṣapura)
What they did here
Birthplace of Vasubandhu.
About Peshawar (Puruṣapura)
Peshawar, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of modern Pakistan, was known in antiquity as Puruṣapura, a capital of the Gandhāra region and of the Kushan empire. According to the Tibetan historian Tāranātha and other accounts, the Yogācāra masters and half-brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu were born there in the early centuries CE.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.