Asaṅga is generally understood to have lived during the 4th century of the Common Era, with traditional estimates centering around approximately 310–390 CE. The exact dates of his life are not fixed with absolute certainty, yet the convergence of traditional and scholarly views places him firmly within this period. This temporal setting situates Asaṅga at a pivotal moment in the development of Mahāyāna thought, when philosophical reflection and meditative practice were being woven together in new and influential ways. His lifetime thus becomes a kind of hinge in Buddhist intellectual history, marking a transition into more systematized explorations of consciousness and experience.

Geographically, Asaṅga is associated above all with the region of Gandhāra in northwestern India, an area corresponding to what is now northern Pakistan and parts of eastern Afghanistan. Within this cultural landscape, he is linked in particular with Purushapura, known today as Peshawar, which served as a significant center of Buddhist learning and exchange. The Gandhāran milieu, with its blend of artistic, philosophical, and devotional currents, provided a fertile ground for the emergence of the Yogācāra tradition that Asaṅga helped to shape. Some accounts also connect his activity with broader areas of northern India, suggesting that his influence resonated across several important centers of Buddhist practice and study.

Seen through a contemplative lens, these coordinates of time and place are not merely historical details but part of the spiritual atmosphere that informed his work. To recognize Asaṅga as a figure of the 4th century in Gandhāra is to see him standing at a crossroads of cultures and ideas, where older currents of Buddhist thought met new reflections on the nature of mind. His life, as remembered in this way, invites reflection on how particular historical conditions can become the soil in which profound insights into consciousness, perception, and liberation are able to take root and flourish.