Yaroslav Vassilkov (Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg)

Yaroslav Vassilkov, Ph.D.
Department of South and SE Asian Studies
Institute of Oriental Studies
Dvortsovaya nab., 18
St. Petersburg, 191186
Russia

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

phones: +7 812/275-8179 (residence)
        +7 812/311-5274 (office; Monday & Wednesday)
email:  yavass@YV1041.spb.edu
email:  vassilkov@hotmail.com

Description of work:

Activities:
acting head of the Department of South and SE Asian Studies at
the Institute of Oriental Studies; lecturer at St Petersburg University,
St Petersburg Oriental Institute (Vedic and Hindu mythology, Ancient
history of India, Bhagavadgita [Bhagavad Gita]). 

Subject interests or themes of research:

Ancient Indian Epics, especially the Mahabharata; its genesis
(particularly in connection with oral epic tradition) and evolution; its
typological definition; epic narrative in relation to myth and ritual; 
epic worldview; Bhagavadgita; epic Samkhya [Sankhya]; epic historicity; 
ancient Indian culture (especially, archaic); Indian mythology and
religion. Comparative Epic studies. Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Aryan
loans in languages and cultures of Volga and Permian Finns. History of
Oriental studies in Russia (esp. Soviet period). 

Participant in the project of the complete translation of the Mahabharata
into Russian (now only books XII, XIII, XV-XVIII remain untranslated) 

Some publications in English:

Draupadi in the Assembly-Hall, Gandharva-Husbands and The Origin of the
Ganikas."Indologica Taurinensia", XV-XVI (1989-1990), pp. 387-398;

Did East and West really meet in the "Milinda's Questions"? - "St
Petersburg Journal of Cultural Studies", vol. 1, no. 1, 1993, pp. 62-77; 

Some Indo-Iranian Mythological Motifs in the Art of the Novosvobodnaya
("Majkop") Culture. - South Asian Archaeology 1993: II. Helsinki, 1994,
pp. 777-787; 

Parable of a Man Hanging in a Tree and Its Archaic Background. - "Jadavpur
Journal of Comparative Literature", vol. 32, 1994-95, pp. 38-51; 

The Mahabharata's Typological Definition Reconsidered.  - "Indo-Iranian
Journal", vol. 38, 1995, pp. 249-256.