Box 3.2 The Prophets Zarathustra and Mani
The movement of ideas and cultures is perhaps the greatest legacy of the Eurasian
trade routes that we know today as the Silk Roads. Besides Buddhism, Islam, Christi-
anity, and Judaism, the nearly forgotten faiths of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism
were also part of the premodern history of Central Asia.
Zoroastrianism was the pre-Islamic faith of the Persian Empire and continues to be
the faith of India’s 70,000 Parsis (“Persians,” a prosperous merchant community cen-
tered on Mumbai). The Avesta (Hymns) of Zoroastrianism taught several key con-
cepts that echoed through Christianity and Islam. These included the idea of the final
judgment of the soul upon death; monotheism; and the struggle between good and
evil, manifested in Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu respectively. Zoroastrian priests
tend sacred purifying fire in fire temples, and perhaps the most distinctive practice of
Zorastrianism is “sky burial” where, at death, the body of the deceased is left exposed
to vultures in a “Tower of Silence.” Vultures will devour a corpse over a period of days.
(This practice is in jeopardy today, since vultures are nearly extinct in India.)
Mani was a prophet of the Zoroastrian tradition. Like Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism
does not have a large community of practitioners, but its historical impact on Central
Asia during the fluorescence of the Silk Roads was crucial. During his life in the third
century C.E., Mani carried forward the Zoroastrian ideas of the struggle between good
and evil but introduced new ideas encountered along the Eurasian trade routes, such
as salvation and reincarnation from Christianity and Buddhism. Manichaeism
appealed most to nomadic and merchant people of Central Asia who moved easily in
and out of the sedentary societies that ringed the landmass. Practitioners of Man-
ichaeism were divided into the “elect” and the “hearers”; the latter were a lay commu-
nity that was not required to live the rigid lifestyle of celibacy, vegetarianism, and
renunciation demanded of the “elect.” This basic division was later incorporated into
most Christian sects as well as in the Mahayana Buddhist traditions. The “hearers”
provided material support to the “elect” as an act of faith, rather than devoting their
lives to meditation and renunciation.
Today, the word “Manichaean” in the modern English language refers not only to
the historical religion but to anything characterized by contrasting or conflicting oppo-
sites. Zarathustra (Zoroaster) took on a second cultural life in the novel, Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), in which the title character bears little
resemblance to the historical Zarathustra except in his wresting with philosophical
questions of morality. Richard Strauss (1864–1949) then composed a symphonic
poem based on Nietzsche’s novel using the same name, and the titanic chords of its
opening “Sunrise” are among the most recognizable in music history. Stanley Kubrick
used this musical fanfare in an iconic scene of his 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968),
since the scene represented a transitional evolutionary phase between ape and man,
which Nietzsche had emphasized in his novel.