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10. MANICHEAN
Logismos (Reason); which are surrounded by a great number of Aions. Twelve of these Aions, the "first-born," surround the Father, three to each quarter of the Heavens."
One of basic teaching of Manicheanism is the idea of process of emanation whereby the Supreme Person transforms and pervades the lower realms. This idea is seen in Vaishnavism as it is found in Mani. The Supreme Being (paramatman) procedes in the following forms of emanations:
1. Para, the transcendental Supreme Being beyond all.
2. Vyuhas, the emanations of God who reside in the higher planes.
3. Vibhavas, the incarnations of God who appear upon earth from time to time.
4. Antaryami, the immanent being who resides in all beings as a partner of the soul.
5. Arcavatara, the consecrated image of God made out of earthly material, which is worshipped by His devotees as God Himself.
The Vaishnava doctrine of avatar is evidently derived from Mani's Evocation principle
"The Father of Greatness saw that it was necessary to meet the challenge of the forces of Darkness. But his Aeons were meant for peace, and they could not be sent to do battle with the demons; so the Father resolved to go to battle himself. To do this, He called forth three Evocations from Himself.
In the First Evocation, the Father called forth the "Great Spirit" or "Wisdom" (Sophia). The Great Spirit projected the "Mother of the Living," and the Mother of the Living projected the "First Man" (identified with Ohrmazd in Persia). The First Man, with his five sons, fire, wind, water, light and ether who composed his Soul and were also the "five garments of Light" which made up his armor, descended into the Realm of Darkness to do battle with the invading demons."
The single most important event during this period in Indian history was the migration of new groups of Aryans from Syria and the continuation of infiltration of their Gnostic theology. Large number of Syrians were displaced from Persia when the religious persecution took place against the Christians and the Gnostics by Zoroastrians. There were two such recorded migrations of Christians found in the Kerala Christian lore. Some of them were rich merchants. They were received with dignity by the Indian people. Among them was the Thomas of Canaa who came to Malabar Coast. His descendants form the Kananaya Christian Community. South India became the center of communication between Syria and India. Some of the villages where these people lived in Kerala were called Mani-gramakar
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