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10. MANICHEAN
It was Mani's teachings that brought in Vegetarianism into India among the Brahmins. Manicheans were vegetarians by principle. We know that Vedics were non-vegetarians and sacrificed animals to propitiate gods and ate them. This was the normal religious form of all pastoral tribes in the world. How did the idea of Vegetarianism came into Hinduism? It certainly was not Vedic. Jains were Vegetarians as a protest against sacrificial killing. How did vegetarianism and Ahimsa comcept enter into Vedic followers of Hinduism? We can trace it to Mani.
"One of the main principles of the Manichaean's was a vegetarian diet of mainly green and yellow foods. Supposedly, light was concentrated in these foods and their bodies served as filters for the particles of light contained in the plants". (Litvinsky: 1992...Pg 414)
Vegetarianism was introduced to the Vedics by
Mani
The mythical parallel with the teachings of Mani can be seen from the following Manichean doctrine of creation
"In the doctrine of Manichaeism, "The Teaching of Light" as it was called; the Universe was originally divided between two eternal, uncreated, and utterly irreconcilable principles: Light and Darkness. The Realm of Light was located in the North, tended upwards, and extended infinitely to the North, East and West. It was ruled by the Father of Greatness (identified with Zurvan in Persia), and was manifested as five "worlds": Nous (Mind), Ennoia (Thought), Phronêsis (Prudence), Enthymêsis (Reflection), and
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