Indology in Russian

[Dr Y. Vassilkov]

    Many thanks to Dr. Ganesan who have demonstrated once more his profound
bibliographical erudition. By the way, in this article some attention is
paid to the works of the Leningrad group for decipherment of the Indus
Valley ("Proto-Indian") writing system, headed by the late Prof.
Yu.Knorozov. It is a pity, but after Possehl's book was published, it became
a common opinion that as soon as nobody had deciphered the Indus script as
yet, all previous attempts in this direction do not deserve attention. I
would like to stress that Knorozov's group in Russia, as well as A.Parpola's
group in Finland and I.Mahadevan in India made serious achievements, their
works contain many useful observations on the structure and function of the
inscriptions, the repeated sequences of signs etc. Their work will be of
great use for the scholars of the future, who will find eventually a key for
reading the seal inscriptions.
    As Mr. Ernest wrote that his interests are in the MahAyAna and Vedic
studies, I am glad to say that both these branches of knowledge always were
and still are popular in Russia. On the Vedic side there is a dozen of
monographs by Prof. T.Ya.Yelizarenkova, starting from her fundamental early
books on the Vedic language and up to her last book "Words and Things in the
Rigveda" ("Woerter und Sachen", in Russian: "Slova i veshchi v Rigvede");
some very important articles written by T.Ya.Yelizarenkova in collaboration
with her husband, Indologist and Indoeuropeanist Vladimir Toporov; Prof.
V.Ehrmann's "Outline of Vedic mythology", Alexander Syrkin's works on the
Upanishads, etc. The MahAyAna was studied intensively even in the 1st half
of the XX century by Theodore Stcherbatsky and his school, and later, in the
1960-1980 - by Alexander Piatigorsky, an Estonian Sanskritist Lienart Meall
(who published many articles in Russian), now it is studied by Andrej
Paribok and his pupils, Victoria Lysenko, Andrej Terentjev, Valery Rudoj and
many others. The philosophical aspects of MahAyAna attract particular
attention.
All the best,
                                                Yaroslav Vassilkov
----- Original Message -----
From: "N. Ganesan" <naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 12:27 AM
Subject: Re: Indology in Russian


> Greetings. Wendy wrote in a magazine from London.
>
> W. D. O'Flaherty, Disregarded scholars: a survey of
> Russian Indology, South Asian Review 6 (1972) 332-5
>
> Regards,
> N. Ganesan
>
> -----------
> Yes, it was after her visit to Moscow and Leningrad (now
> St.-Petersburg again) about 25 years ago. The title (or subtitle)
> was "The disregarded  scholars". She reviewed mostly the works of
> Indologists belonging to  Moscow-Tartu school of structural studies.
> Some of the people mentioned here soon after that had to emigrate,
> but others left. Unfortunately, I can not give the precise reference.
> An American magazine. The article never reached the libraries of
> the USSR.
>                                                          Ya.V.
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>  > Didn't Wendy Doniger (O'Flaherty) write a survey of Russian Indology
>  > some years ago?
>  >
>  > Allen Thrasher
>  >
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