Manichaeism was a faith founded by sage prophet Mani who was born in Ctesiphon in Iraq at around 216 CE. Most scholars classify his teachings as dualistic cosmology – a struggle between good and evil where an anthropomorphic evil entity competed with a good God. It is my hypothesis that this interpretation is wrong and Manichaeism was more in line with Vedanta and other Dharmic faiths that were prevalent at that time. As a faith, Manichaeism spread rapidly all the way from Persia to China. Mani had the support of Persian Emperor Shapur the first, under whom this faith thrived. Bahram succeeded Shapur and he had some differences with Mani which led to the imprisonment and death of the prophet. Manichaeism was then heavily persecuted only to fade away to extinction by the 14th century.
Before we jump into Manichaeism, let us take a look at another interesting event in history which took place three hundred fifty years before Mani was born. In 146 BC, two princes from Kannauj (in Uttar Pradesh, India_ fled the kingdom and sought refuge in ancient Armenia. The king in Armenia received them kindly, and they settled in an area called Taron which is situated in modern-day Turkey. History says that the princes were killed when they had a fallout with the king who gave them their Asylum. But the descendants were spared. They thrived and there was a reasonably big Hindu community in that area and three cities Kvar, Megtes and Hor were established. Temples were built here dedicated to gods Gishneh and Demeter. Modern-day scholars think Gishnah might be a reference to Krishna.
Around 301 AD a war breaks out that leads to the extinction of the Hindu settlement. We know this from the accounts of Zenob Glak. Zenob was Syrian and a companion of Saint Gregory the illuminator. Saint Gregory was a patron saint of Armenia and under Tiridates III had been granted full rights to convert the nation to Christian faith. Zenob recounts a war between the forces of Saint Gregory and the Hindus which resulted in the defeat and the death of the Hindu community in Taron. This chronology is preserved as part of the “History of Taron” by John Mamikonian. It should be noted that all of this happened in a pre-christian era.
Mani was born in Ctesiphon. A Hindu settlement existed around 350 years before Mani was born in Taron in neighboring Armenia. According to many accounts, Mani traveled to the Indian subcontinent spent some years there and returned back to Persia where he has the patronage of Emperor Shapur. The source material for Mani’s life comes from a couple of sources. The first one is the Shapuragan written by Mani. The title translates to the book of Shapur. Mani had written it to present an outline of his faith, his teachings, to Shapur. Interestingly the manuscript was found all the way in Turfan, an archaeological site on the ancient Silk Road in northwest China. The next source is the Cologne Mani codex a parchment codex that was found in Asyut in Egypt. This is a Greek text that describes the life of Mani. Most of these works have been translated by later translators and it should be kept in mind that translators almost always look through their own theological lens when translating any work. In many cases, the original context might be lost.
When we take a look at the teachings of Mani, we find a lot of parallels with Dharmic faiths, specifically the theology seems to be inspired by Vedanta. The first thing that Mani emphasizes is non-violence. Non-violence was emphasized and in fact most of the Manicheans were vegetarians. There is a record of the Song Dynasty in China where Manicheans were derogatorily called vegetarian demon worshipers. Mani also asked followers not to be false and not to be unjust. The next important teaching of Mani was the denial of the ego to realize the true self. The denial of the ego is a central and core concept both in Buddhism and in Vedanta. The other most important part of Mani’s teaching was that the soul was part of God nature. This is essentially the essence of Advaitha as well. In fact, this markedly shows that Mani was influenced by Vedanta as Buddhist theology at that time did not place an emphasis on the Atma.
The presence of God energy in humans was one of the basic tenets of Advaitha which actually says that the soul (Atman) is the same as the highest reality (Brahman). Humans are a direct manifestation of the Godhead. There are also verses such as “Aham brahmasmi” which proclaims that each individual is part of the highest reality. Possibly the most important teaching of Mani that parallels Dharmic faiths is rebirth. Mani maintained that the soul goes through various cycles of birth and death until it frees itself from the material world which Mani termed as evil and progresses towards a pure world of light. Later scholars maintain that Manicheism is dualist which also means that Mani talked about a powerful though not omnipotent good power opposed by the eternal evil power. The evil power being Satan and omnipotent good power is God. This is probably not true. Let us look at a parallel from Vedanta. When Mani describes the material world as evil let us take a verse from the Kathopanishad – Yama the Lord of Death says in the Kathopanishad
“The hereafter never reveals itself to a person deluded by material wealth. A person who thinks that the material world is all that exists again and again he comes under my sway”
Kathopanishad
Yama says that if a person thinks that all that exists is just this material world, this world of desires and pleasures, they have no chance of realizing the highest reality. But this does not make Yama evil. Yama is just stating the facts. Yama is just stating the law of Karma. Yama is just saying the material world is hurting your spiritual progression and the more tied and more bogged down you are to this material world you would not be able to realize the essence of the self. That is what Yama is trying to say. That doesn’t mean that Yama is evil and Yama is the antagonist to the God energy. There is no antagonist to the God energy. So evil was not an anthropomorphic entity. Being bound to the material world is going to hurt progression. This is why the material plane is called evil and I Believe that Mani was using his words in a similar context. There is another parallel as well where Mani actually talks about the nature of the soul. Mani says
“The soul cannot be seen with the corporeal eye, the ear does not hear it, and one does not grasp it with the hand, nor can it be expounded with the tongue.”
Mani
Again the Kathopanishad says,
“Not by speech can it be known not by the intellect not even by hearing”
Kathopanishad
Both Manichaeism and Hindu Vedanta talk about the nature of the Atma, the self. Buddhism though being a Dharmic faith does not lay an emphasis on the Atma. In fact, most popular interpretations of the Anatta doctrine claim that Buddhism specifically rejects the notion of a soul. So you can see that Manichaeism is more similar to the Vedanta doctrines of early Upanishadic Hinduism (more than it does compare with Buddhism). The parallels between the dharmic faiths specifically between Vedanta is striking. It is highly probably that Mani was inspired by Vedantic teachings.
Sadly, the Manicheans did not survive. The Manicheans were driven to extinction by nearly every other faith that existed at that time. Shapur I favored Mani. He listened to Mani, he allowed Mani’s Teachings to be spread far and wide. However, Bahram the eldest son who succeeded Shapur did not like Mani. Some scholars say that it was because the Zoroastrian clergy were not happy with Mani. Long story short Mani was put to death by Barham. The Manicheans still survived.
Diocletian was a pagan roman emperor who came to power in 284 CE. He had some disputes with the Manicheans. He ordered that the leading followers of Mani be burnt alive, the low status followers be executed by the sword, their assets seized and many sent to work in labor camps. So this was a pagan Roman Emperor who started the persecution against the Manicheans.
Then came Theodosius – he was a Christian Roman Emperor. Most people would know Theodosius as the Emperor who issued the decree that made Nicene Christianity the official state Church of the Roman Empire. Theodosius the first also known as Theodosius the great reigned from 379 CE. Theodosius persecuted the Roman religion, he persecuted the Gnostics, the Essenes and he also persecuted the Manichaeans. He created oppressive laws that deprived the Manichaeans to make wills. Many of them were executed and others exiled.
Some Manichaeans survived but with the arrival of the early Abbasid caliphate they suffered quite a bit of oppression.
Why were they persecuted? The first reason was that Mani Emphasized the detachment from the material world. This meant that people could not be controlled by material wealth and goaded to act based on material temptation. This would have been an inconvenience to any ruling authority. The second and most important reason was Mani’s emphasis on the divinity of the human soul. He maintained that the God energy was present in every single human soul. There were no selective groups of people who are ordained by divinity. Everybody had divinity in them. This would have challenged both theological and political authority. This would have been the single most important reason why the Manicheans were persecuted. Mani emphasized in karmic fashion that an individual was responsible for the path that they chose. He shifted personal responsibility and accountability back to the individual rather than putting the blame on an external evil entity.
Looking at the big picture, we begin to see that at sometime in the ancient world in the distant past there was this incredible period of awakening. People were taught and people believed that the human soul was part of divinity and part of God energy. They believed that the material world was not all that there is. They were taught that it was your own personal actions that would lead to their spiritual progression. Their own personal actions would either bind them to the material plane or take them towards enlightenment. Their own personal actions, their Karma, would be the one that sets them free.