Of Suren and other avatars

[Mors Planch]

Ένα περίπου αυτόνομο τμήμα από ένα αρκετά μεγαλύτερο σεναριο εναλλακτικής ιστορίας από το 2006. Δεν ξέρω αν ταιριάζει εδώ βέβαια καθώς είναι θύμιζει ποιό πολύ ιστορικό κείμενο στον τρόπο γραφής...

 

Surenism: Major religion, named after it's founder Suren in the 10th

century AD. Surenism largely descends from Zoroastrianism, incorporating

strong Christian, Buddhist and Hinduist elements.

 

Encyclopediae Italica, 29th edition.

 

 

"I profess myself a devotee of Mazda, a follower of his 4 avatars. And

Suren has been the last avatar before the end of days."

 

>From the Surenist declaration of faith.

 

 

Sureninsm is largely a result of the success of the Persian empire under

the Ziebelids. With an empire stretching from the eastern reaches of the

Sahara to central Asia and Northern India, Persia is the strongest state

on Earth and also perhaps the post religious diverse of all empires of

its day. Under the shah of shahs live Christians, both Nestorian and

Monophysite, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Hinduists. With this ongoing

religious pot pouri it isn't odd that the four major religions end up

influencing each other and Suren is the product of these influences.

 

The exact origins of Suren are not quite known. Born somewhere in

Persian Bactria, around 850, Suren would claim to be Persian and to

belonging to the noble family of the same name but it is unknown how

true his claims might have been. What is certain is that he would be

raised up in a place were Zoroastrianism was being heavily influenced by

Buddhism and vice versa and Suren's later teachings would be markedly

showing the influences of his raising. After moving to Gundishapur

sometime around 870, Suren would start preaching in 880 what to a large

extend was a syncretic Zoroastrianism heavily influenced by Buddhism and

to a lesser degree by Christianity and Hinduism. According to Suren,

Vishnu and the Christian god was but one and the same with Ahura Mazda

with Zarathustra, Buddha and Christ having been his 3 avatars on Earth.

Two more avatars were to be, the last of them to come with the end of

the world when Ahriman and evil in general would be brought down in the

final clash by Ahura Mazda, a concept conveniently similar to Christian,

Hindu and even existing Zoroastrian ones. [1] While Suren himself never

claimed so, he also did nothing to stop the belief that he was the 4th

avatar from spreading and after his death this would become part of the

new religion's mythology.

 

For nearly 20 years Suren preaches from one end of the empire to the

other before settling to the academy city of Gundishapur in 902. There

he dies 8 years later but not before converting Mark of Beirut, inventor

of movable type. This will prove pivotal for the spread of the new

religion as under the influence of Mark Surenism becomes the first of

the major creeds to see its teachings and scriptures spread by

typography. Helped by the generally cosmopolitan state of the Persian

empire which while officially Zoroastrian is quite tolerant of the other

religions in imperial lands and concepts sufficiently close to these of

the other major creeds inside the empire conversion to the new religion

proves relatively easy. This is true even among Zoroastrians, the

empire's official religion as to them it can be described as no more

than one further, and last as Surenists are concerned, evolution of

Zoroastrianism. [2]

 

When Suren himself dies in 910, his creed is still confined to

relatively small numbers of adherents in the capital of Ctesiphon, the

major cities of the empire, Alexandria, Damascus, Aspadana and Susa as

well as the university city of Gundishapur. Over the next 3 generations

it spreads rapidly along the Monophysite and Nestorian populations of

the empire and finds notable success inside Persia itself although there

it is often not much distinguished with mainstream Zoroastrianism,

itself influenced by Buddhist and other notions, by its practitioners.

 

It is in central Asia and Persian controlled India that Surenism finds

the most widespread success. Central Asia is of course, Suren's own

homeland and where the new religion springs from. In India the

egalitarianism of the doctrines coupled with being recognizably close to

the prevailing religions in north India, Surenism has widespread

appeal along the lower castes of the Indian society gaining ground and

converts at a rate making it the primary religion of Persian India by

the year 1000.

 

Beyond the borders of Persia the new religion proves quite less

successful. The 4 Roman states are solidly orthodox Christian, with

certain dogmatic differences among themselves but still solidly

Christian. While Surenists are not outright persecuted any more than the

small surviving minority of pagans or Jews they aren't received with any

greater warmth than Zoroastrians either given the traditional enmity and

on and off war towards Persia. Ethiopia, solidly Christian itself and

not particularly friendly to Persia either does not react any better. In

central and south India, Persia is the encroaching enemy coming from the

north and Surenism threatens the existing social order on top of it.

Reaction among the Hindu dominated states is drastic with Surenist

missionaries often killed out of hand. But Surenism also has a notable

effect on Hinduism itself. Hinduism is already in a state of reform

since the late 9th century. [3] Contact with Surenism and reaction to it

further accelerates this process. [4] It is only in central Asia that

Surenism makes considerable inroads beyond the Persian border and among

the Turkish tribes there...

 

 

[1] Second coming, last avatar of Vishnu and Peshotan in Vohuman Yasht

respectively.

 

[2] One notes that this TLs Zoroastrianism has already seem one

such...evolution so to speak when Mazdakites came to dominate it during

the Sassanid collapse and the Khazar takeover.

 

[3] OTL's Advaita Vedanta.

 

[4] I model the reaction to the OTL reaction to the spread of Islam in

northern India. Although the particulars are going to be different I

would expect that coming under pressure Hinduism would react and reform