The Pratītyasamutpādavyākhyā (hereafter PSVy) is divided into two parts, the ‘Ādi’ and the ‘Vibhaṅga.’ The Ādi is the introduction, and twelve sections of the Vibhaṅga discuss the doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (i.e. “dependent origination”). The forth section ‘nāmarūpa’ appears to have an important relationship between Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhās. ya and his Pañcaskandhaka, specifically about his five skandhas theory. When Vasubandhu tried to become a mahāyānana・ist (or vijñānamātra・ist), he wrote the Vyākhyāyukti, the Karmasiddhi, the PSVy, the Pañcaskandhaka, etc. But the PSVy is an interpretation of a very short Āgama sūtra, the Pratītyasamutpādasūtra. This means that he wanted to try to combine the Āgama and the Mahayāna. On the other hand, because he must follow the structure of the Pratītyasamutpādasūtra when discussing its contents, the order of five skandhas in the PSVy is not the same as that in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. In this study of nāmarūpa in the PSVy, with the help of Sanskrit text of the Pañcaskandhaka found in recent years, I tried to understand why Vasubandhu wrote the PSVy, what differences are there between his śāstras, and what is consistent in these threatises. This may be helpful for understanding Vasubandhu’s relevant theories.
