Korean Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

This study examines the question of authorship of the Pañcaskandhaka (PSk). Although the PSk has traditionally been attributed to Vasubandhu, the author of the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (AKBh), the hypothesis that there were two figures named Vasubandhu has raised doubts concerning the authorship of several works previously regarded as his. Accordingly, this study seeks to investigate whether the PSk was in fact composed by the same Vasubandhu who authored the AKBh.
Two major arguments are summarized in relation to this issue.
First, the discussion concerns the classification of mental factors (caitasika). The classification of mental factors in the PSk differs from that presented in the AKBh: whereas the AKBh enumerates forty-six mental factors, the PSk recognizes fifty-one. In the AKBh, Vasubandhu does not acknowledge these additional factors as distinct mental factors, on the grounds of their intrinsic nature. By contrast, in the PSk, this position is altered, and these factors are treated as separate entities.
Second, a further divergence appears in the definition of “sound” (śabda). In the AKBh, Vasubandhu explicitly refutes the classificatory taxonomy adopted in the PSk, referring to it as the position of “others” (apare). He criticizes this method of classification by pointing out that it involves a logical fallacy. Nevertheless, the PSk adopts precisely the classificatory system that the AKBh rejects, thereby revealing a serious inconsistency in doctrinal stance. This discrepancy casts substantial doubt on the assumption that the AKBh and the PSk were written by the same author.
The PSk should be regarded as an early Vijñānavāda text that incorporates key Vijñānavāda concepts on the basis of the Abhidharma doctrinal framework. Although it has traditionally been attributed to Vasubandhu, the author of the AKBh, a more careful reexamination of this attribution, together with further study of the text itself, appears to be necessary.