G. Roerich’s Contribution to Russian Indology

Abstract

G. Roerich is an important figure for the history of oriental studies. His contribution to the development of Tibetology, Mongolian studies and the history of Central Asia is prominent. This article deals with G. Roerich’s contribution to Russian Indology. G. Roerich has graduated from the best Western universities: London University, Harvard and Sorbonne, where he received classical indological education. He followed the principles of the classical Indology during his entire scholarly career.G. Roerich understood the field of Indology broadly: not in a geographical sense, but rather as a cultural-historical unity, including not only India (South Asia), but also Central Asia, Tibet and Mongolia. This view (approach) originated in the tradition of Russian oriental studies, in which Shcherbatsky’s school of Buddhology prevailed until the 1930s. According to this view (approach), the subject of Indology included the study of the whole space of the Indian Buddhism.In this paper the following works by G. Roerich are analysed: “Professor Charles Rockwell Lanman and His Work in the Field of Indology” (1931), “The Story of the Rama in Tibet” (1960), “Indology in Russia” (1945).In the 1930s, in Russia, oriental studies suffered from severe repressions. Schools of Buddhology and especially of Tibetology almost disappeared. On his return in Russia in 1957, G. Roerich began to revive the lost scientific school. G. Roerich’s contribution to the training of young soviet indologists as well as buddhologists and tibetologists is most significant. Many of his students later became the gems of Russian scholarship. After the breakup of the USSR, they kept the scholarly traditions of the classical Indology and handed them over to their students and so on. In such a way, the succession of Russian Indology was maintained. This could not have happened without G. Roerich.For Indology in Russia G. Roerich was not only a scholar who returned from emigration. He has not only enriched Russian Indology with his scholarly works. He has become the symbol of the revival of Oriental Studies in this country, the necessary link in the long chain of the scholarly succession.