On November 24-25, 2014, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the Roerich Readings on the topic "Problems of Text Formation and Culture in Ancient and Medieval India and Central Asia".

V. V. Vertogradova (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in her opening speech noted that Dmitry Nikolaevich Lelyukhin, a member of the Department of Oriental History of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a well-known researcher of epigraphy and history of India and Nepal (1956-2014), was a regular speaker at the Roerich Readings. When the readings were going through difficult times during the crisis of the 1990s, he put a lot of effort into reviving them. V. V. Vertogradova suggested that the current readings should be dedicated to the memory of D. N. Lelyukhin. Those present observed a minute of silence in his memory.

A. A. Vigasin (ISAA MSU) made a report "The King, his enemy, friend and others (on the "Arthashastra" of Kautili)", in which he outlined his interpretation of the "circle of states" scheme of the "Arthashastra" in the context of the culture that gave rise to it. According to this scheme, the main pieces on the political "playing board" were: 1) enemy (ari), 2) its opposite-friend (mitra),

3) madhyama (literally, "being in the middle") - that is, both an enemy and a friend at the same time,

4) udasina (literally, "indifferent, neutral") - one who is neither an enemy nor a friend. Such ideas, according to the speaker, correspond to the well-known tetralemma of Indian logic-catuṣkoṭikā, which is fully found in the Brahmajala Sutta (11.27). There are four possible answers to the question of the existence of the "other world": either it exists; or it does not exist; or it exists and at the same time it does not exist; or, finally, it cannot be said that it exists or that it does not exist (athi, nathi, athi ca...nathi ca, nevathi na nathi paro loko). Therefore, the "circle of states" scheme seems artificial and is not the result of an analysis of specific political situations.

N. A. Korneeva's report (Moscow) "Mantras-spells in the ritual of receiving the guest of honor (atithi)" was devoted to the brothers, i.e. those who did not pass the timely rite of initiation and could not participate in the rites of the twice-born. Grhyasutras, with the exception of the Paraskara-grhyasutra, do not pay attention to the goalkeepers. But when describing the reception of an honored guest of atithi, very aggressive "mantras" are put into his mouth, if they can be called mantras. They are not found in the Vedic samhitas, and their use in texts does not indicate a preference for any Vedic school. The discrepancy between these mantras and the context of receiving the guest of honor was noted by Jan Gonda in his work " The Ritual Sutras "(1977) and D. N. Kudryavsky in his dissertation

"Studies in Ancient Indian domestic rites "(1904). However, these mantras can better fit into the context of the grhyasutra guest of honor reception ritual, if we assume that the guest-atithi could be a vratya, as indicated by the Lpastamba-dharmasutra, which by guest-atithi, along with the acharya, priest, snataka, etc., can also mean a vratya. The report examined the mantras of the Kaushika Sutras, which reflect the magical practices associated with this ritual and provide additional evidence of the connection of the vratyas with the Atharvaveda.

In the report of V. V. Vertogradova (IV RAS) "The visible and invisible in the edicts of Ashoka", a new interpretation of a number of texts of decrees related to the term dasane was given. The interpretation is based on the consideration of the aṣṭamangala ritual, which is attested in the ancient Jain canonical texts.

In his report "Once again about Scythian Varna" S. V. Kullanda analyzed the written sources and etymology of Scythian proper names, in particular, indicators of belonging to social groups known through the works of ancient authors. This was an additional argument in support of the hypothesis that Varnas evolved from sex and age groups. This is the origin of the hierarchy of mythical brothers, founders of hereditary social groups, in the Iranian tradition. Contrary to the order of birth, the younger brother becomes the progenitor of warriors, i.e. the leader of youth groups. The speaker proposed new etymologies of Scythian words based on regular phonetic correspondences between Scythian and other Iranian languages.

Yu. M. Alikhanov (ISAA) in her report "Panchatantra and the Clay Cart: on the question of the urban branch of Ancient Indian literature" came to the conclusion that it is necessary to distinguish the urban branch in Sanskrit literature of the I-V centuries. The right of urban circle literature to an autonomous status is supported by its numerous differences from court literature, both structural (plot type, hero, city as a medium and place of action, laughter line, etc.) and ideological. It is the ideological orientation that is a crucial diagnostic indicator in the distribution of well-known texts under the headings "urban" and "court literature". To prove this point, a comparative analysis of the ideology of the "Clay Cart" of Shudraka and the "Panchatantra" (at the level of "frame" stories) was carried out.

In his report "On the meaning of the term pāvai in Tamil culture", A. M. Dubyansky (ISAA) showed that in classical Tamil poetry this term is often used in many meanings. Most often, the word pavey refers to female figures made of various materials. Often they have a cult meaning, representing a certain goddess. In poetry, the beauty of the heroine is sometimes compared to the beauty of pavey, and at the same time this term refers to the heroine herself, as well as an actress, or singer, or musician like virali, who performed priestly functions in rites and rituals. The speaker concluded that the word pavey originally meant an image of the goddess (idol), and other meanings appeared as a result of its semantic expansion. This image and word was used by the medieval Vishnu poet Andal in the poem "Tiruppāvai" ("Sacred Idol").

A. G. Guria (ISAA) made a report on "Textual convergence of the collection "Tirukkural" and collections of maxims in the Bible: to raise the question". She recalled that in South India, at the time of Tiruvalluvar (mid-1st millennium AD), the author of this work, there was a Christian mission founded by the Apostle Thomas, and the poet was probably familiar with the texts of the Bible. The report attempted to trace the extent and nature of the biblical influence. The speaker analyzed texts that are similar in meaning to biblical maxims, and came to the conclusion that in most cases it is difficult to understand what we are dealing with - influence or typological similarity, since in any culture there are antinomies "righteous-evil-doer", "wise fool", "laziness-hard work", " poverty wealth". According to the speaker, the text of the Tirukkural was influenced by Christianity, but Christian ideas entered it in a highly assimilated form, exactly to the extent that they fit into the worldview of the South Indian moral thinker of that era.

In the report "Peculiarities of the structure of song-poetic texts in the tradition of Hare Krishna Bhakti: bhajans of Mira Bai" S. O. Tsvetkova (St. Petersburg State University) showed that the song-poetic texts - hymnal, didactic, prayer, etc. songs (bhajans) - poetess Mira Bai (1499-1547) have a remarkable structure. They are partly made up of cliches, the main

the purpose of which is to serve as a "reference" material when creating poetic texts in an improvisational manner. Cliches act as rhythmic units of text organization. They are similar in syntactic structure: they are verb combinations or predicative constructions, which are often perceived as phraseological units. Phonetic parallelism, repetitions, and rhythmic ordering of cliches are observed. Initially, cliches are idiomatic in nature. This contributes to the fact that according to the model of well-known phraseological units, unclashed motifs and possible new formations are built in the songs of Mira Bai. The combined nature of the chant texts and their other features suggest that almost every aspect of the emotional mood of the "heroine" depicted in them corresponds to its own expression model (one, less often several), which often goes back to folklore phraseology. Such models can be considered as ways of verbal coding of the emotional state, developed or accepted by tradition, they are a characteristic feature of the preaching of Hare Krishna Bhakti, which distinguishes it from other preaching traditions of the Indian Middle Ages.

V. M. Yakovlev (Moscow) in his report "Language environment and peculiarities of song text reproduction (Karelia, Japan)" on the example of the songs "By the sea, by the blue Sea ..." and "Coachman, don't drive the horses..." showed what metamorphoses the song text can undergo, changing its habitat and language environment.

S. S. Tavastsherna (St. Petersburg)GU) in his report "On some features of the construction of the ancient Indian text" noted that in the early period before the spread of writing and after the appearance of written languages, a huge number of texts were created and transmitted in India exclusively in oral form. At a time when the practice of writing down texts has already spread, some elements of text organization that have been fixed in the tradition since non-written times are preserved, and new text structuring techniques are being developed for better memorization and preservation, which indicates a focus on oral transmission (first of all, this applies to scholastic texts). Among the features that allow us to speak about the specifics of the ancient Indian text, the report highlighted the following: 1) the detailed development of the metric since the Rig Veda; 2) the metrical organization of the text, for example, changing the verse size to divide the text into periods; 3) the presence of auxiliary texts created on the basis of basic ones, with a complex system of combinatorics of elements (words4) use of formal elements in prose to mark periods; 5) "block" constructions in prose with replacement of key elements; 6) structural organization of texts in order to protect against possible errors; 7) development of the style of concise mnemonic formulas-sutras; 8) creation of mnemonic texts that have several readings, each of which can be used as a reference to the text itself. which supports each other, protecting the text from changes.

G. G. Khmurkin (S. I. Vavilov Institute of Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State Technical University) in his report "Peculiarities of Indian mathematics (based on Mahaviracharya's treatise "GaitItasārasarhgraha" - "Collection of basic provisions of the science of computing", IX century)" noted that "exact science" has been flourishing in India since the middle of the 1st millennium AD. It is a mixture of mathematics, astronomy and astrology. Around the ninth century, mathematics was separated into an independent field. It is at this time that Mahaviracharya's treatise, which is the first work in the history of Indian thought devoted exclusively to mathematics, belongs. Based on the material of the treatise, the speaker considered the features of medieval Indian mathematics: 1) the poetic construction of the text; 2) the extreme conciseness of the mathematical rules ' formulations, which gave rise to an extensive commentary tradition; 3) the lack of evidence (until the middle of the 2nd century); 4) the use of numbering systems with base 10; 5) the rich synonymy and homonymy of mathematical vocabulary.

E. V. Tyulina (IV RAS) in the report " Principles of classification and organization of material in architecture texts (vassuvidye) in the puranas" identified the most important, from her point of view, schemes and matrices used in these texts to describe and explain various phenomena (construction site design; classifications of materials, buildings, plants; descriptions of substances for offerings; flags and standards; reservoirs; city design, etc.). all schemes are reduced to three main ones: 1) description according to the location of the cardinal directions; 2) description according to the anthropomorphic image, when objects are related to various human organs; 3) description according to the scheme of primary creation, i.e. the combination of the three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas) and the five elements-tattvas (space, wind, fire, water, earth). All schemes can be used in highly reduced and expanded versions.

in the form. So, according to the anthropomorphic image, vertical objects (a temple, statue, lingam, column, standard, etc.) can be described briefly (which corresponds to the feet, navel, and head). However, there are also very detailed descriptions, for example, a description of the statue, where several pages list the measurements of its various parts, up to the phalanges of the fingers. Often these schemes are superimposed on each other and transformed, as, for example, in the "Agnipurana" in the well-known descriptions of the anthropomorphic image of the temple (Chapter 61) and the structure of the city (Chapter 106).

K. P. Shrestha (IB RAS) in his report "The cult of Indra in folklore and religious traditions of Nepal" spoke about the history of the formation of this cult, its traditions and forms of its existence in modern Nepal.

Yu. S. Atmanova (MSU) in her report "The concept of "similarity" in Mughal portrait painting" showed that among all the schools of Eastern miniature painting, Mughal artists managed to approach the basics of Western European portraiture most closely, while preserving traditions and remaining formally within the framework of Muslim artistic doctrine. The term "likeness" (shabih) used in relation to portraiture, which is usually translated as "portrait", allowed the painter to justify the limit of his creative abilities and not claim a function inherent exclusively to the Creator (Allah). The miniaturist could only imitate the Creator, reproducing some semblance that is essentially an unspiritual form. At the same time, the concept of Mughal "similarity" implied similarity to the model. This, in particular, is evidenced by the inscriptions left by the Mughal padishahs on miniatures, evaluating the portrait - "good", "similar","very similar". The desire for verisimilitude initiated a new method of artists ' work, namely to write from nature. Artistic truth consisted in the organic combination of realistic verisimilitude with idealizing typification.

E. D. Ogneva (Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) has been studying and describing the tanks included in the collection of Yu. N.Roerich for several years. In her report "The experience of reading the Tibetan Tanka ("Green Tara" from the collection of Yu. N. Roerich's Cabinet, Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences)", she proposed one of the interpretations of this tanka. She established the historical figures depicted on the tank: Tsultrimrinchen Shuchen (1697-1774) and, possibly, Kungatrinlegyatsho - the fourteenth ruler and seventh dharmaraja of Derge (? - 1751; reign years 1738-1751) or Kungagyatsho (dates of life and death unknown). The color scheme, the main characters allow you to correlate the appearance of the tank with the dates of death of the presented characters, which can be considered the time of creation of this composition. More precisely, it will be possible to say if among the matrices for impressions (vapors) in the collection of the Derge Printing Yard it will be possible to find the vapor of this particular image. Localizes the place where the print was created - Derge Printing Yard, the place where the tank was created-Eastern Tibet.

V. V. Demenova (Ur. FU, Yekaterinburg) in her report "The origins of the formation of Buddhist art collections in the Urals" spoke about the composition and history of collections in Irbits, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, accompanying her report with rich illustrative material. D. N. Vorobyova (GII) made a presentation "Vismaya-hasta as a gesture of singing in ancient Indian iconography". There is a well-known ban on the depiction of characters with their mouths open; heavenly musicians, who are represented in many reliefs of temples, could not be represented singing. But it was by their singing that they were called to praise the deeds of the deities. Therefore, there was only the possibility of transmitting via gesture. Studies of the figures of semi-divine musicians (Gandharvas, Apsaras, Kinnaras and ganas) in reliefs of temples led to the conclusion that the so-called vismaya-hasta, in which the hand is raised up, bent at the elbow and the brush is turned to the object of worship, became the chanting gesture.

In the report " The Bodhisattva birth episode in early Chinese translations of the Sutras. On the history of plot development " N. V. Alexandrova (RSUH) considered the episode of the birth of the future Buddha as one of the key moments that play a constructive role in the construction of the Buddhist hagiographic text, in the pictorial tradition, and in the creation of pilgrimage geography. In the textual tradition, this episode has variations, and consideration of early versions of the biography of the Buddha makes it possible to trace the evolution of this fragment of Buddhist tradition. Interesting material is contained in the early Chinese translations of non-preserved Indian sutras: Kang Meng-hsiang " The Sutra of the Beginning of deeds "(the turn of the II - III centuries) and Zhi-qian "The Sutra told by the Buddha about the good appearance of the prince" (the first half of the III century). According to the speaker, in them, according to comparison-

In comparison with later biographies, there is a different arrangement of the individual components of this plot.

A. A. Mekhakyan (Yerevan) in his report "Sounds and letters of Sanskrit (Ali-Kali) in Kalachakra Tantra" considered the question of how the Sanskrit alphabet forms the basis of the symbolic system of Kalachakra Tantra. In these symbolic constructions, vowels and consonants are found in various combinations and combinations. Sanskrit sounds and letters play an important role in all three sections of Kalachakra Tantra. This was demonstrated by analyzing the symbolism of the ten-term sound-color / phono-chromatic monogram of Kalachakra (skt. daśākāro vaśī; tib. rnam bcu dbang ldan). The speaker noted that in the spiritual practices of Vajrayana Buddhism in general and in Kalachakra in particular, the central place is given to three main religious and practical methods: visualization, recitation of sacred formulas (mantras) and sacred gestures (mudras). The sounds and letters of Sanskrit are used in two of the three main methods mentioned above, namely in the practices of contemplation (various visualizations and meditations) and in the recitation of sacred formulas (mantras). Sounds and their expressive letters are not only recited, but also contemplated along with various deities.

A.V. Lozhkina (MSU) in her report "The concept of Pudgala in Early Buddhism" considered the concept of pudgala, which is important not only for some schools of early Buddhism, but also for understanding the development of Indian philosophy in general. The concept of pudgala was developed theoretically in the early Buddhist schools of Sammatiya and Vatsiputriya, which later formed the direction of pudgalavada ("the doctrine of pudgala"). Information about the Pudgalavada schools can be found in the Ceylon chronicles, epigraphy, and notes of Chinese travelers, especially Xuanzang. Sources agree that sammatia split from Theravada as a result of discussions about Abhidhamma around the turn of our era. It can be argued that pudgalavada was no less influential than theravada, and later mahasanghika. We learn about the philosophical views of the Pudgalavadins from translations of their texts into Chinese, as well as from the Abhidhamma-pitaka of the Pali Theravada canon - from the Kathavatthu - "Subjects of Discussion". The text "Kathavatthu" was translated into English at the beginning of the XX century by T. Rees-Davids. There are no translations into Russian. The first chapter of Kathavatthu is devoted entirely to pudgala and is based on a Theravadin-pudgalavadin conversation. According to the pudgalavada, the concept of pudgala cannot be defined unambiguously, for example, to say whether it is identical with the skandhas or different from them, due to them or not due to them. Pudgala belongs to the category of avachya - the ineffable. Pudgala one who knows, receives the fruits of deeds, is reborn, attains nirvana. Pudgala is the principle of organization, the structural unity that organizes the beginning of the soul's life. Possible translations of this term are: "I", "soul", "self", "persona", "individuality", "personality", "essence". The speaker offers another translation option, "source of attention". From her point of view, the concept of pudgala should be explained in detail and better left without translation.

E. S. Yuditskaya (MSU) in her report "The concept of adbhuta in ancient Indian culture" analyzed the concept of adbhuta ("something amazing", "mysterious"), which is important for Indian culture, but practically not studied by scientists. The word adbhuta is found in the Vedas as a positive epithet for the gods. It is interesting that in the Brahmanas there is also a clearly negative meaning of the word. In the later layers of Vedic literature, adbhuta becomes a technical term for divination with the meaning omina / portenta (omen). A number of texts, some in prose and others in metrical form, are entirely devoted to the adbhutāni. The texts define and classify adbhutas and attribute them to certain deities. Bad adbhutas are assigned shantis (redemptive rituals to prevent evil or misfortune). As a bad omen, adbhuta often appears in the epic. In the Pali canon, the word is given a new meaning. Pali adbhuta takes on the meaning of "miracle" and is a collective term for conveying the beautiful and amazing deeds of the Buddha, as well as the phenomenal events of his biography. The question of the origin of the adbhuta race, which is based on wonder, remains open. Adbhuta-rasa is an important element of ancient Indian aesthetics, as evidenced by the requirement of its presence in the last act of nataka (NW 20.46), i.e. the play must have an unexpected ending.

E. G. Vyrshchikov's report "Lokayats and lokayatiki in the Pali canon" was devoted to the lokayat school, which flourished in ancient times, and in the early Middle Ages fell into decline and did not enjoy authority. There are no texts that can be identified with the ancient Lokayata (like other schools that passed away early, such as ajivikas). Therefore, the information about the lokayatiks found in the sutras is particularly valuable

The Digha nikayas of the Pali Canon. From the dialogues of Buddhists with Lokayatiks, we learn the opinions of the latter on various issues and the names of authoritative mentors, but the main thing in the Digha Nikaya is the list of disciplines that make up the canon of the lokayat school. This list allows us to state that the Lokayatiks were not ancient materialists, as is commonly believed: the list is headed by the "three vedas", then the" vidyas "("knowledge") associated with them are listed, and with slight discrepancies - in the same order as in the"Arthashastra". The following is an indication of the social group among which this school exists: the gahapatika brahmans. Lokayatiks are militant devotees of the "dharma of the four varnas" with excessive claims to the power and sole authority of the brahmans. Many indirect signs bring their teachings closer to the Arthashastra. It is possible that in ancient times the Lokayatiks were the very environment from which the Amatyas were recruited, who, according to the Pali canon, formed a separate class. All this makes it possible, at least, to doubt the real belonging of the lokayata to nastika, which was insisted on by medieval authors.

A. K. Vasiliev (MSU) in the report " Bardo Todol ("The Tibetan Book of the Dead"): problems of interpretation and translation " identified two classes of problems. The first one is caused by the lack of a single canonical text. The speaker had at his disposal four versions of the Tibetan text, which can presumably be reduced to two versions. The differences between editors are mostly grammatical and lexical in nature, but in some cases they affect the meaning of the text, which can lead to opposite interpretations. The second class of problems arises from the possibility of interpreting many terms and expressions both within the framework of the general view of Tibetan Buddhism and from the point of view of Dzogchen teachings.

In his report "The climate of Central Asia in Ancient and Middle Ages: reflected in sources", Yu. I. Drobyshev (IB RAS) examined the specifics of the Central Asian climate through the prism of historical works related mainly to the period of the Mongol Empire. In the first half of the 13th century, diplomatic missions that visited Mongolia compiled notes about their travels, which also contain information about the Mongolian climate. Data on the climate of Central Asia are of particular interest, since, according to some scientists, climate is the reason for the rapid strengthening of the Mongols and the success of their wars of conquest. However, the speaker, based on the reports of Li Zhi-chan, Zhang De-hoi, Chinese diplomats Peng Da-ya and Xu Ting, European ambassadors and missionaries Plano Carpini, Rubruk, C. de Bridia, and the Persian historian Rashid ad-Din, suggested that in the first half of the XIII century, cooling and climatic processes occurred in Central Asia acquired instability. The speaker came to the conclusion that the available data do not allow us to reasonably judge the climatic background of the emergence of the Mongol Empire. The process of politogenesis was much more complex, due to social rather than natural factors.

V. V. Tishin (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) in his report "On the correlation of ethnic and social history of nomadic peoples: towards the history of the issue" considered various concepts and interpretations of ethnic and social aspects of the history of nomadic peoples of Central and Central Asia in Russian and Western European historiography.

D. I. Zhutaev (IB RAS) made a report on "The Small Sukhavativyuha Sutra and the text universe of Mahasanghiks "and S. C. Ofertas (IB RAS) made a report on" How to dump the winner (Utpaladeva's refutation of the Buddhist purvapakshin)".

A. N. Khokhlov (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) based on archival materials in his report "Contacts of G. D. Grebenshchikov with the Roerichs" spoke about the communication with the Roerichs of this famous Russian writer, journalist and public figure. The report of A. M. Shustova (IB RAS) was devoted to the work of Yu. N. Roerich "Animal style among nomads of Northern Tibet", published in Prague in 1930, as well as his research during the Central Asian expedition.

In general, the thematic, territorial and chronological coverage of the reports heard at the readings was extensive. Most of the reports continue the research directions of Yu. N.Roerich and are somehow connected with the study of the cultures and history of the regions of the East that were in the field of his interests.

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