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10. MANICHEAN
EUROPE
Mediterranean sea
CHINA
PERSIA
EGYPT
ARABIA
INDIA
SOMALIA
Indian Ocean
JAVA
Evidently, one of Mani's major evangelical fields was India. The reason for that is not difficult to find. He was a Persian and an Aryan. Aryan Pallavas were in India as prominent people scattered all over India from North to South. Beginning with an ancient Persian from of Zarathustrianism, which penetrated the Tibetan region in the 5th Century BC, and followed by a heretical Pudgalavadin form of Buddhism in the 3rd century BC, paved the way for the influx of the teachings of Mani in the late 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th centuries AD. This Manichaean faith became totally dominant in northern Tibet when the Uighur King converted to Manichaeanism in 762 AD. In A.D. 1000 the Great Persian historian Al-Beruni wrote: "The majority of the Eastern Turks, the inhabitants of China and Tibet, and a number in India belong to the religion of Mani, the Buddha of Light"
However, what happened in the rest of India was very radical. Thomas Christianity was supplanted by Gnostic Christianity and grew up with tremendous amount of myths and Puranas that it came to be known as Sanadhana Dharma without the mention of Isa (Jesus), though Jesus was taken as a great sage but not a soter.
What did Mani teach?
It is not necessary to explain what is gnosticism and what Mani taught while in India because Gnosticism in modern form is Hinduism. They believed in the god of creation and also in an on going war between good and evil. They believed in the law of Karma and also in reincarnation. It is through gnosis or knowledge one attains moksha (salvation) which is variously described as union with God or becoming a god or escape from the cycle of birth and death.
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