Yaroslav Vassilkov (Peter the Great Museum, Russian Academy of Sciences)

Yaroslav Vassilkov, Prof. (Dr.)
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

Phones:  +7 (812) 2758179 (home)
         +7 (812) 328 41 32  or  +7 (812) 328 08 12 (office) 
Fax:     +7 (812) 328 08 11
email:   yavass@mail.ru

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. 

Subject 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).

Selected papers in English:
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.