Yaroslav Vassilkov

Region of Interest

South Asia

Primary Country of Residence

Russian Federation

Title

Professor

Affiliation

Peter the Great Museum, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email

yavass@mail.ru

Mailing Address

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)
3, University Embankment
St.Petersburg, 199034, Russia

Residential address:
Fontanka, 2, kv. 617, St.Petersburg, 191187, Russia

Phone/Fax Number(s)

Phones: +7 (812) 2758179 (home)
+7 (812) 328 41 32 or +7 (812) 328 08 12 (office)
Fax: +7 (812) 328 08 11

Countries of Specialization

India

Research Interests

The Mahabharata, its genesis (particularly in connection with oral epic
tradition),
development and typological definition; myth, ritual and history in the
Mahabharata; heroic
worldview in the Mahabharata; early philosophy in the Mahabharata (esp.
Samkya-Yoga);
comparative epic studies; prehistoric cultural links between India and
Eurasian steppe; Indian
influence on and contacts with Eurasian steppe in antiquity; history of
Oriental studies in Russia.
Participant in the project of the complete translation of the Mahabharata
into Russian (at
present only books XII and XIII remain untranslated).

Teaching Interests

Activities:
Senior research fellow, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and
Ethnography (Kunstkamera),
Russian Academy of Sciences.
Senior research fellow, Laboratory of Comparative Poetics, Institute for
Philological Research,
St.Petersburg State University.
Lecturer at Oriental and Philosophical faculties, St.Petersburg State
University.

Publications

The Mahabharata's Typological Definition Reconsidered // Indo-Iranian
Journal, vol. 38, 3, July 1995, p. 249-255;
Kalavada (the doctrine of Cyclical Time) in the Mahabharata and the
concept of Heroic Didactics // M.Brockington and P.Schreiner (eds.). Composing a Tradition:
Concepts, Techniques
and Relationships. Proceedings of the First Dubrovnik International
Conference on the Sanskrit
Epics and Puranas. August 1997. Zagreb, 1999, pp. 17-33;
Indo-Iranian Vayu and Gogolean Viy: An Old Hypothesis Revisited
// Vidyarnavavandanam.
Essays in Honour of Asko Parpola. Ed. by K.Karttunen and P.Koskikallio.
Helsinki, 2001, pp.483-496.
Indian practice of pilgrimage and the growth of the Mahabharata
in the light of new
epigraphical sources // M.Brockington (ed.). Stages and Transitions:
Temporal and Historical
Frameworks in Epic and Puranic Literature. Proceedings of the Second
Dubrovnik International
Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Puranas. Zagreb, 2002;
The Mahabharata's Similes and Their Significance for Comparative Epic
Studies // Rocznik
Orientalistyczny. T. LIV, Z. 1 (2001), Warszawa, 2002, pp. 13-31;
The Gita versus the Anugita: Were ever Samkhya and Yoga really "One"? //
Epics, Khilas
and Puranas: Continuities and Ruptures. Ed. by P. Koskikallio. Zagreb:
Croatian Academy of
Sciences and Arts, 2005. Pp. 223-254.

Keywords

Mahabharata ; oral tradition ; ritual ; history ; philosophy ; culture ; ...