Dear Colleagues,
It is with deep sadness that I write to tell you that our colleague and friend Boris Oguibenine passed away in Strasbourg on November 12th—just days after celebrating his 85th birthday on November 6th.
Boris was a scholar of extraordinary range and depth. His work spanned Vedic, Classical, and Buddhist Sanskrit, Indo-European mythology, etymology, and linguistics. His life was as remarkable as his scholarship—shaped by immigration, his participation in the Russian structuralist movement, political dissent, personal courage, and unwavering loyalty to his friends.
Boris was a professor emeritus and former chair of South Asian studies at the University of Strasbourg. He was also a founding member, Director, and Secretary General of the International Association for Comparative Mythology.
Most recently, he was working on the Index of Mythological Motifs of the Ṛgveda, which we were hoping to publish next year.
He will be profoundly missed.
The funeral will be held in Strasbourg (Centre Funéraire, 15 Rue de L'Ill 67000, Strasbourg Robertsau) on Tuesday, November 25th at 14:30 (2:30 pm). If you would like to attend, please let me know and I'll send you more details. Also, please get in touch if you'd like me to read your name during the service as a tribute to him.
If anyone from EHESS is reading this, please help spread the word through your center. Boris was a long-standing member of EHESS, and perhaps someone there would like to attend his funeral.
With warm regards,
Nataliya
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Nataliya Yanchevskaya, Ph.D.