Buddhist and Indian Elements in the Onomastics of the Iranian Manichaean Texts

Iris Colditz

doi:10.46586/er.11.2020.8710

Abstract

The use of names and terms of Indian origin bears witness to encounters of Iranian-speaking Manichaeans with Indian religious traditions and cultures, but the importance of an impact of Indian religions on Manichaeism is still subject of scholarly discussions. This paper focuses on Buddhist and Indian elements in Manichaean onomastics. Recent research in the context of the project *Iranisches Personennamenbuch* has provided, for the first time, a complete collection of proper names in the Iranian Manichaean texts from the Turfan region. The transmitted Iranian, hybrid, and non-Iranian names of Manichaean and non-Manichaean historical persons, literary, and mythological figures reflect the ethnic, religious, and multilingual diversity of the peoples along the Silk Roads. The results of this study enable us to analyse the various influences in Manichaean onomastics. Here this refers to proper names of Indian origin, loan-translations, Buddha and Bodhisattva names, names from the Buddhist tradition, and the like. This paper shall show which Indian names occur in Iranian Manichaean texts and how they have been adapted to the Manichaean context.

Highlights

Manichaeism, named after its founder, the prophet Mani (216–276/7 C.E.), was once one [1] of the great world religions
The results of this study enable us to analyse the various influences in Manichaean onomastics in greater detail
As measured by the small number of Indian names in the Iranian Manichaean corpus, one could get the impression that the Manichaean tradition was not essentially affected by Buddhism

Summary

Introduction

Manichaeism, named after its founder, the prophet Mani (216–276/7 C.E.), was once one [1] of the great world religions. 如来 rulai, in Mahāyāna Buddhism one of the [21] ten titles of Buddha Śākyamuni and a designation of the five transcendent Adibuddhas, appears in Manichaean Sogdian texts as a literal translation myδʾγty, myδγṯy /Mēδ-āγatē/ “-come.” This term is used in a text on the apostles as an epithet of Jesus who is identified with the “New Day” (nwy myδ) From Parthian, the word may have been transmitted into Sogdian (but with records only in Buddhist texts in various different spellings, with metathesis -tβ > -βt) and from there into Old Uyghur and New Persian, on the one hand, and into Middle Persian, Arabic, etc., on the other There it underwent further phonetic developments which are not subject of this paper (see Sundermann 1982, 100–108; but for revision of his arguments, see Sundermann et al 2001, I:180–181; Sims-Williams 2004, 544–45). Skt. arhantas), while Sogd. rahand and OUygh.Sʾrxnt, ʾrxnt /arxant/ (Zieme 1996, 27, 34–36) are close to the Indian word (see Leurini 2013, 56–58; Colditz 2018, no. 28)

Figures from the Buddhist Tradition

Conclusion

Berlin