Mani, the Buddha: the Buddhist substratum in the genesis of Manichaeism

This study aims to investigate Buddhism's role in the development of Manichaeism. To determine its absence of clear Buddhist ideas, the main features of Bardaisan of Edessa's Report on Indian Religions, which was an important document for Mani's knowledge of India prior to his travels to the Indo-Iranian milieu of Central Asia, will be analyzed. Thereafter, the investigation will focus on Buddha's role in Mani's system, which provides better evidence of the Buddhist impact in early Manichaeism. It will be argued that Mani and his followers developed a "Manichaean Buddhology" by transferring and assimilating elements of Buddha's life into Mani's prophetology.