대승불교 형성기 페르시아 영지주의 종교의 영향 - 불교 사후세계의 이원화 현상을 중심으로 -

Abstract

The formation of Mahayana Buddhism was mainly centered on the present Pakistan and Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, which were located around the western area of Indus River region in the time of Kushan Dynasty. This area was the center of the Persian culture, not the Hindu culture. This kind of human-geographical characteristic can make us assume the Buddhist fusion with the new Persian religion, not the Brahman(Hindu) as the Buddhism spread to the Persian region. In particular, Peshawar, the capital of the Kushan dynasty and the central Iranian highlands are also regarded as the original home of Zoroastrianism, a traditional Persian religion. The Persian Zoroastrianism and Indian Brahmanism are both religions of the same Indo-Iranian Aryan family. They share similar gods and religious doctrines. The Buddhism that grew up through its confrontation with Brahmanism as its identity in India eventually spread to the Persian region in the age of Mahayana Buddhism, and on the contrary, it also shows the Buddhist fusion with the local traditional religion. Amitabha and Vairocana Buddha were seen as the result of the Buddhist reception of the Zoroastrian supreme deity, Ahura Mazdā, and Maitreya was also the result of the Buddhist fusion with the Mithraism in the Persian region. In addition, apart from the saṃsāra (reincarnation) theory of early Buddhism, Buddhism also establishes its religious doctrines of the dual post-mortem world of the Pure land and the Hell world. This is interpreted as the result of Mahayana Buddhism's acceptance of the concept of space in the dualistic post-mortem world of Heaven and Hell which has the meaning of retribution after death and the dualism of good and evil in Persian Zoroastrianism.