Boris A. Ivanov (Moscow State University)

submitted: 8/18/95 (by mail)

Boris A. Ivanov, PhD.
Associate Professor
Acting Head
Department of South Asian History
Institute of Asian & African Studies
Moscow State University

and

Director,
Centre of Indological and Buddhological Studies
Institute of Asian & African Studies
Moscow State University

Mailing address:
Dept. of South Asian History
Institute of Asian and African Studies
Moscow State University
Mokhovaya, 11
Moscow 103009  RUSSIA

phones: 095-203-66-17 (office)
        095-931-26-95 (residence)
fax:    095-203-36-47
email:  ivan@polit.iaas.msu.su

Description of work:

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
-History, social structure, culture of Cis-Himalayan region, mostly 
Nepal, expecially 18th-19th centuries;
-The unification of Nepal; stratification, ethnic and social compositions 
of old and new elites, their consolidation, role of the Ranas, political 
psychology ("Gurkha phenomenon"), relations with British India;
-Caste system of Nepal: genesis, evolution, Newar and Indian models, 
Jajmani, Hinduization and Sanskritization, hierarchy, political, 
cultural, social discrimination;
-Ethnic history of the Himalayas from the earliest ("proto-kiratas", 
their Southeast Asian roots);
-Religions in Nepalese Himalayas: spread and evolution of Buddhism, local 
cults and Vajrayana, especially Buddhism of Newars and its interaction 
with Hinduism, synthetic cults (Matsyendranath, etc.), social role, Newar 
festivals, calendar, sacred topography of Newar towns;
-Sources for Himalayan history - creating database for epigraphic 
sources; Prithvi Narayan Shah's "Dibya Upadesh"; Muluki Ain; residency 
papers, Hodgson collection; archives of British india and Russa; European 
travelers in Himalaya;
-historiography, especially Soviet-Russian, French Himalayan studies, 
Hodgson.
-bibliography of Himalayan studies in Russia and abroad.

Also: Indian caste as a model for Nepal; political role of 
Sanskritization in early period; relations between Nepal and British 
India; Russian travelers in India in 19th - early 20th centuries.

TEACHING INTERESTS: History (esp. 18th-19th centuries), ethnology, 
culture, religions of India and Nepal; traditional social structure of 
India and Nepal; caste and tribe; source materials and historiography of 
Indian and Nepalese history.