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INTRODUCTION
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9. Asanga and the Tantras
Professor Benoytosh Bhattacharya associates Asanga with the authorship of a Sadhana (No. 159)1 and the Gūhyasamāja Tantra2. His basis for this hypothetical conclusion is a passing reference to the traditional handing down of Tantric secrets in Taranātha's History3.
He further observes that since the main source of the origin of the Vajrayana has been the Yogācāra and the Madhyamika standpoint regarding Nirvāņa (=mahāsukha) and sunyatā(=vajra)4, the Sadhana No. 159 (p. 325) which refers to the five Dhyani Buddhas and is ascribed to Asangapāda in its colophon, may be a work of Aryasanga, the celebrated author of the YBS and other Yogacara works5. The Vajrayāna lays emphasis on Bodhicitta6 and this doctrine was elucidated for the first time in the Guhyasamāja, the work of Asanga". He concludes that the Guhyasamāja, 'which for the first time inculcated the doctrine of the five Dhyani Buddhas and their families, was composed and transmitted in secret
1. Sādhanamālā, p. 321.
2. Intro. to Guhyasamāja Tantra, pp. XI-XII, XXXIV; Intro. to Sadhanamālā, p. XXVII; Intro. to Buddhist Esoterism, pp. 62, 66, 126.
3. p. 201.
4. Intr. to Sadhanamālā, pp. XXIII-XXVI.
5. Ibid., p. XXVII.
6. Buddhist Esoterism, pp. 96-7 sq.
7. Ibid., loc. cit.; p. 99,
