The background of Indian influence on Mani and its evidence in Šābuhragān

Document Type : Scientific

Author

Department of Culture and Ancient Iranian Languages, Faculty of Persian and Foreign Languages, University of Tabriz, Tabriz-Iran

10.22103/jis.2024.21994.2520

Abstract

Most scholars who do research on Manichaeism and its founder, Mani, believe that he did not possess suitable knowledge about the Buddha’s teachings, and Mani’s familiarity with Indian schools was limited to only a couple of years of his journey somewhere in the subcontinent. On this premise, those scholars argue that the information regarding Buddha and his teachings provided in the Manichaean texts, is related to the Manichaean society of Great Khorasan, who, due to their vicinity to the Buddhist cultural milieu, have included the religious terminology of Buddhism into Manichaeism. This aforementioned assessment is not acceptable for some reason proposed and discussed in this article: There is notable evidence that shows before travelling to India, Mani was acquainted with Indian schools, especially with Buddhism, so that he made a trip there to complete what he had learned about them in his homeland. Moreover, the Iranian philosophers were obviously aware of Indian knowledge and sciences, inasmuch as meetings of debate have been frequently held in the Shahs’ court between the sages of different schools. According to the spread of Indian teachings in Iran, and the documentation provided by Mani and Manichaean writings, it can be illustrated that before traveling and during the formative years of his principles and revelation, Mani made great use of Indian knowledge and schools; further, in his description of the universe and celestial bodies in Šābuhragān, he was influenced by Indian astronomy and astrology.

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