Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Nāgārjuna – 120
Paramārtha mentions a heretic named Vindhyavāsa as the author of
the Saṁkhyā book against which Vasubandhu’s polemic was
directed. It is remarkable, however, that to the Chinese also
Takakusu, T’oung Pao, 1904, p. 15 ff.; Bullétin de l'Ecole française
d'Extrême Orient, Vol. IV 1904, p. 1 ff.; Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1905, p. 16 ff. According to Takakusu Vindhyavāsa is
It was not till late in life that Vasubandhu was converted to the
Mahāyāna by his brother. Now he repented, his biography relates his
earlier depreciation of the Mahāyāna so much that he was prepared
to cut off his tongue, but his brother suggested to him that it would
be a superior penance to employ henceforward his tongue with as
conspicuous success for the elucidation of the Mahāyāna principles
as he had done to combat its doctrine previously. Vasubandhu acted
up to the counsel and wrote after the death of Asaṅga a large number
of commentaries on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka the Prajñāpāramitā
and other Mahāyāna sūtras together with other learned works, as to
whose existence we know only from their renderings in Chinese and
Tibetan. Paramārtha praises the charm and the convincing power of
his works and winds up with these words:
“Accordingly, all who study the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna in
India use the productions of Vasubandhu as their text-books. There is
nowhere a promulgator of the [100] doctrine of Buddhism belonging
to another school or in a heretical sect who is not seized with fear
and perturbation as soon as he hears his name. He died in Ayodhya
at the age of eighty. Although he led a secular life his true character
was hard to understand.”