Aka Manah

In the oldest Zoroastrian layer (the Gathas) akem manah appears as a descriptive state—'manah made evil'—applied to human disposition and as a property of hostile beings. In later Zoroastrian tradition (Younger Avesta, Pahlavi) this concept is personified: Akoman is one of the demonic creatures fashioned by Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) to oppose Ahura Mazda. Pahlavi texts rank Akoman highly among Ahriman's host—sometimes described as second in order after Angra Mainyu—and pair him structurally as the antithesis of the Amesha Spenta Vohu Manah (Good Mind).

Scriptural texts (Gathas, Younger Avesta, Pahlavi) do not preserve a consistent anthropomorphic form for Akoman; he is primarily characterized by function—'evil thought' or 'evil purpose.' In later epic literature (Ferdowsi's Shahnameh) Akvan is rendered with vivid monstrous features: long hair, blue eyes, and an elephant-like head with tusks in place of teeth. That concrete grotesque image belongs to the Shahnameh's literary adaptation rather than to the early religious corpus.

Across the Younger Avesta and Pahlavi materials Akoman's chief activity is to induce perverted thought and sensual desire in humans, blunting their capacity to discriminate good from evil and promoting social and moral disorder. In Vendidad he appears in a temptation episode where he poses ninety-nine questions to Zarathustra. In hymnological material he is listed among hostile beings who oppose beneficent entities and is predicted to be defeated by Vohu Manah at the final renovation of the world. Pahlavi summaries and the Denkard attribute to him the social effects of discord, concealment of one's own faults while seeking others', and other mischiefs associated with corrupt mind and desire.