Some difficulties in understanding texts written in Oriental languages and translating technical terms into Russian.

Abstract: this article addresses the key mystery of Shakyamuni-Buddha’s path to liberation from suffering, the attainment of perfect knowledge, omniscience, achievements of nirvana, and much more. Various texts of the Buddhist traditions unequivocally describe this event by the term “Bodhi”. The correct understanding of the content of this term means the understanding of the phenomenon of Buddhism, a religion, which remains unique among all religions of mankind. In particular, the article addresses the problem of translating (or interpreting) the term of “Bodhi” into Russian. The author traces the translations of this term in the Russian studies of the Buddhist culture and religion, which cover the period of two centuries. He argues that the most exact rendering of this term is the prosvetlenie (an “enlightenment”, “illumination”), supported by the such eminent scholars as F. I. Stcherbatsky, S. F. Oldenbourg and Yu. N. Roerich and their pupils. Another translation as probuzhdenie (an “awakening”) should be rejected. In this context it has different connotations and, besides, is also reserved to describe in Russian other phenomena of the Buddhist cultural and religious tradition.

Abstract: the legend of Śambhala and a related eschatological battle between the twenty-fifth kalkī king of Śambhala and the enemy of Dharma, which initially appeared in the eleventh-century Indian, Buddhist tantric tradition of the Kālacakratantra, proliferated in the later Tibetan and Mongolian sources. In the nineteenth, and particularly in the early twentieth-century Mongolia, when the demolishing of Buddhist monasteries and persecution of Buddhist monks were carried out by the Mongolian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party, a wealth of literature on meditational and ritual practices related to the transference of consciousness (‘pho ba) to the Buddhist kingdom of Śambhala emerged. Witnessing the executions of monks and a destruction of Buddhism in Mongolia, Mongolian lamas in the country’s capital felt the urgency to compose practical guides to a swift transference of consciousness to Śambhala for the lamas who were facing an immanent death. The instructions on the transference of consciousness to Śambhala abound in meditations with visualization and imagination practices and accompanying rituals.

Abstract: this article considers the special relationship of the Tathagata with “speaking truth”. Valuable material for studying this relationship in detail we take from the Sutras of “Digha-Nikaya”. And in these parts the Tathagata is extremely similar to a certain character of early Upanishads (“Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” and “Chandogya Upanishad”), who called brahmishtha. This character is mysterious, in the later Brahministic and Hinduistic traditions it is not fixed. The article makes the assumption that Tathagata was in the ancient pan-Indic term, only subsequently established exclusively for Buddhism, brahmishtha was and remained a peripheral term, the hero of local traditions.

Abstract: the article deals with the Vajradhara Buddha iconography and sculptural images. Vajradhara is a symbol of the dharmakaya i.e. the primordial Buddha, the fundamental principle of the whole pantheon of deities of the Vajrayana. Due to the genius and inspirations of Zanabazar (1635–1723), the great artist and the spiritual leader of Mongolia, the Adi-Buddha Vajradhara became the holiest figure in Mongolian Buddhism and also religious symbol of the whole country. The author analyses various sculptural images of Vajradhara both as single deity and as a yab-yum symbol (a representation of the primordial union of wisdom and compassion, depicted as a male deity in union with his female consort) by Ӧndӧr Gegen Zanabazar or related to him. The artefacts are currently being preserved in the Buddhist monasteries, temples and the museums of art as well as in private collections in Mongolia. The latter have not yet received their full description and often remain unrecorded.

Abstract: it is a continuation of the translation into Russian of Ibn-Sina’s treatise al-Isharat wa-t-Tanbihat (“Remarks and Admonitions”). The present chapter deals with the origination of the world from the One / Necessary Existent. Divine creation is described as an act of intellection. The cosmogonic scheme is constructed through the synthesis of Neoplatonian emanationism with the Aristotelian-Ptolemy model of the Universe.

Abstract: the article deals with the problem of the content structure of the BhagavataPurana, the most representative sacred text from the list of the main eighteen Puranas (the so-called “historical chronicles”) of classical Hinduism. Revealed ten-term composition of the Bhagavata, which are the characteristics of the so-called the mahapurana (“great purana”). Then, the variability of ideas about the location of these ten topics within the Bhagavata itself is considered on the example of the teachings of teachers in the Gaudiya tradition (Bengal Vaishnavism). The opposite positions of such representatives of the tradition as Jiva Goswami (XVI century) and Vishvanatha Chakravarti (XVII–XVIII century) find their synthetic expression in Prabhupada’s teaching (XX century), the latest representative of the school.

Abstract: the article deals with the note on the history of the Greek language and the Greek script as found in the Kitab al-Fihrist by Ibn an-Nadim. The author analyses the composition of the passage as well as the ways and methods applied to transcribe the Greek technical linguistic terms with Arabic letters. The results obtained invite a strong suggestion that the note as a whole was not written by Ibn an-Nadim himself but was constructed on the basis of the material from the Greek manual Kitāb fī aḥkām al-iʿrāb ʿalā madhab al-yūnāniyyīn composed by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873 AD).

Abstract: reconstructing the actual history of Ancient Israel is not an easy task. The Biblical texts, which remain the primary source for these studies are also Sacred Books at least for two World religions. Therefore, any kind of textual criticism, which offers their different interpretation is inevitably connected with sensitive issues regarding modern politics and ideology. As a matter of fact, the discussions regarding these issues always remain particularly acute. The article offers a survey of the discussions regarding the pre-history of Israelites as an ethnic group and the creation of the monarchy governed by the Davidic kings (the very existence of whom is also arguable as it comes out of some modern research). The author suggests that as a method can be applied a critical approach to the narrative itself. This approach is hoped will facilitate the distinction between the eyewitness reports (or stories written after them) and idealistic reflections on the past times (such as Solomon’s golden age, which do not possess any sources to build upon). The identification of the different strata within the Biblical narrative and juxtaposing them to the archeological findings from the same chronological period allows a reconstruction of a coherent and convincing historical picture of the Ancient Israel. This method also sets the limits for our knowledge with regard to this subject.

Abstract: the “Persian miniature” was the gift by A. A. Akhmatova to her son after his return from the concentration camp. The sheet includes the painting and the textual decor placed around it. There is no documentary evidence of the history of the present, a donator or the symbolical meaning of the donation. This article discusses the problem of the textual decor and its connection with the content of the picture. The textual decor is presented by extended cartouches with oriental inscriptions. The most frequent are the quotations from Jami’s “Yusuf and Zuleikha”. This helps to correlate the textual decor with the meaning of the scene presented in the picture. Since professor A. Boldyrev was invited to interpret the textual decor of the picture on Akhmatova’s request, there might be a hypothetical connection between Akhmatova’s awareness of the meaning of the text and her donation of the miniature to her son.

Abstract: The article offers a review of the 58th George Roerich Annual International Meeting. The meeting was attended by 34 scholars from Russia and Ukraine who conduct their research in the fields, which did interest the late Yu.N. Roerich, such as Tibet, India and Central Asia. The talks were held on the subjects closely related to the political history, history of art, language philosophy and the history of religion. The scholars analyzed mostly unknown or very little texts, both ancient and medieval, written in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Nepalese, Chinese, Japanese and other languages. Along with the textual analysis they also offered results of their research in such areas as textual tradition, migration, as well as interpretation and translation into other languages.

Abstract: the article offers a review of the scholarly inter-institute meeting, which addressed the studies in the field of lexicology and lexicography, the “The Orientalist Readings 2018”. The meeting was held in the year of the 200th anniversary of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among the most important topics covered during the meeting were the criteria used to define the term “word” in Oriental languages as well as related topics dealing with “lexical complexes” and expressions. Additionally, there were communications regarding the history of the Oriental lexicography as well as ways and methods used for building up dictionaries. The latter covered both traditional bilingual dictionaries and thesauri as well as modern dictionaries, which deal with the Internet slang and punctuation. Along with the mainstream topics the participants paid attention and made interesting remarks and observations regarding the field of lexicology and lexical semantics of Oriental languages.