Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

3.2
good fortune. During excavations at the second Buddhist temple at Dalverzintepa a
fragment of a vessel wall was found with a one-line Bactrian inscription in black ink
which clearly reads Mao – the name of the moon deity in the Kushan pantheon.
Thus, the presence of Buddhist and Avestan deities in the Buddhist temples of
Northern Bactria has been recorded in two places so far. The image of Mithra was also
discerned in the Buddhist paintings at Bamiyan. These findings are not coincidences.
We know that Mahayana Buddhism readily absorbed deities of other religions into
its own pantheon, which could be attributed to the greater accessibility and ease with
which Buddhism could prevail over other religions. On this basis, we can assume that
the Buddhists of Bactria included the ancient Avestan deities Pharro and Mao in their
pantheon and possibly others too.
Two inscriptions from Fayaztepa and some, possibly in Kharoshthi, from Karatepa,
mention the Mahasanghika Buddhist school. Manuscripts found in a Buddhist stupa
in the suburbs of Old Merv are a compilation based on the sutras of teachings of the
Shravakayana, i.e. the vehicle of the Shravakas, belonging to the Sarvastivadin school.
Mahasanghika and Sarvastivada were the principal early Buddhist schools.
Christianity
Representatives of various branches of the Christian Church initially appeared in
Central Asia having migrated mainly from Persia and Syria, and then making their
way along the routes of the Silk Road to Xinjiang and China. They made a significant
contribution to the establishment of cultural contacts between the West and the East.
They arrived in Central Asia in the early centuries AD for a number of reasons: some
were missionaries, others were fleeing persecution from, or disagreements with,
adherents of other religious movements in their countries of origin.
Among them were Christian Orthodox Melchites and Jacobites, representatives
of one of the branches of the Western Syrian Church, which took its name from its
founder, Jacob Zanzalus (called also Baradaeus), but most of them were Nestorians,
followers of Nestorius (AD 380–440). Their presence and role in the spread of
Christianity in the aforementioned countries is associated with political and, more
particularly, religious activities.
In the 4th century and early 5th century AD, as their own position grew stronger,
the Orthodox Church in Byzantium and the government supporting it, intensified
their battle against heretics, including the Nestorians.
Disagreements about the interpretation of the Holy Scripture, religious rituals
and the nature of Christ that had arisen in the previous centuries within the once
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