Manicheanism

>>2865710
By proxy yes.

During the time of Manicheanism, Rome was already trading with India. So were the Greek before. They have vague knowledge about Buddhism/Hindu gods.

>>2865710
The Romans knew of the Buddha. It wasn't something that had never been heard of.

>>2865738
>>2865741
It just seems really far-fetched, that a large number of people in the Roman Empire worshiped a religion that recognized the Buddha and devas.

>>2865929
The ancient world was far more connected than many people realize. Alexander the Great and Hellenism had alot to do with it.

>>2865929
The word you use is "large number". Not most follower of Mani. Depending on context, "larger number" could mean few hundreds out of thousands, few dozens out of hundreds, or even tens of thousands out of hundreds of thousands. Mani traveled to Afghan where Buddhism would have been central. Even if he managed to convert only a fraction of the Buddhist population that number alone would have qualified for the "large number"

Usage of the word "large number" removes the relative context and puts it in a absolute number category. Whether you did this knowingly to make your argument more universal, but weaker or whether you knew your argument was weak, so you bend your words to fit your narrative.

>>2866032
Mani had a significant following for centuries.

>>2865710
Zoroaster was a kind of celebrity in ancient culture, especially in theology and occultism
all cultural people knew about "brahmanas" and yogis from India
Apolonios of Tyana argued that Hindu wisdom was higher than Egyptian, went (allegedly) to India and came back to spread more wisdom about gods
people in Roman Empire didn't know MUCH about all that Hindu stuff, but knew more than most of us think they did

Jason Beduhn believes Christians derived important parts of there tradition for the Manichaeans, and some of it possibly through Augustine. Here's a talk and an interview of his but it doesn't speak solely on it though.

https://youtu.be/4OP4F5aPn-g
https://youtu.be/lJWT46cVRuM

>>2867202
*their and from the Manichaeans

>>2867202
I always thought it was strange that no link between Buddhism/Christianity was established when there are so many similarities, which first arose in Buddhism.

From monastic system, to rosary, to asceticism, to use of hand gestures to signify meaning (mudra in Buddhism), to meditation, etc.

These are probably influenced from proxies like Mani.

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>>2865710
Wouldn't Roman historians be aware of the Alexandrian Greco-Bactrian Kingdom? Accounts of the old Greco-Buddhism had to be circulating anywhere with Greek cultural influence, as anything related to Alexander's conquests would be worthy of discussion.

File: 3A6D031A-C2C4-4D54-AE91-708CF9DFEC93-11124-0000085A0E95D073_tmp.jpg (1MB, 1900x1796px) Image search: [Google]

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Why does Valentinianism syzygy cosmology sit better with me than other Gnostic sects?