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ŚRĀVAKABHUMI
for about three hundred years, and that is why, it did not attain wide publicity. It is only in the Sādhana composed by Asanga that we find a definite reference to the five Dhyāni Buddhas and their families, and it is for that reason not unreasonable to connect the introduction of the very Guhyasamāja itself”l. He further observes that Asanga drew inspiration from the Magi priests of the Scythian origin
We see that no cogent reasons have been adduced, to prove the association of Asanga with Tantrism. Had it been the case that Asanga belonged to the Tantric tradition he should have referred to some of the doctrines of Tantrism at least in their crude form in his other works also. But no reference to Vajra, Mahāsukha, Bodhicitta or Karuņā is found in his other works. At one place (SBh., p. 404), we come across a single reference to 'Yuganaddha, but this yuganaddha has been used there in the traditional Pāli sense of the ‘dual of śamatha and vipaśyanā. Hence, due to paucity of source-materials nothing can be definitely said with
1. Buddhist Esoterism, p. 126. 2. He remarks, "Asanga is the originator of Tantra in Buddhism......
reputed to be a Gāndhārian and it is no wonder that he drew the inspiration from the Magi priests of Scythian origin. The Magi priests must have introduced the Śakti worship or the union of male and female energies, and in the time of Asanga the ground was well prepared to receive this introduction which was not known before the time of Asanga and that of Guhyasamāja, either in the dhārani treatises or even the Āryamañjuśrīmülakalpa". Buddhist Esoterism, p. 54.
