CENTRE FOR INDIAN STUDIES AT THE KUNSTKAMMER, ST.PETERSBURG,
RUSSIA.

The new Centre for Indian Studies of the department of South
Asian and the Middle East Studies is the result of the
reorganization of the former Institute of Ethnography (now
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography - Kunstkammer) in which
it was founded as a new department. There was already a group
of indologists at the museum, but they were not formally
organized. In the past they had produced a few collective
monographs on India and the museum contained many rich
ethnographic collections from South Asia.

By N.G. Krasnodembskaya and I.Y. Kotin

The Museum was founded by Peter the Great as a Kunstkammer, or
collection of curiosities. Indian collections have been built
up since the 18th century and among them are masterpieces
which were donated by Russian tsars, diplomats, and scholars.
More than 10,000 exhibits collected in India are kept in the
Museum. They need care and description. 
However, the activities of the group are not solely confined
to the mere care and description of these collections.
Intensive investigations are focused on such topics as the
caste system in India, religions and national minorities,
immigration from India, Indian village life, and Indian
ethics. In collaboration with some colleagues in Moscow and
St.Petersburg, the group has prepared the Handbook of
Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism for publication. Now they are
working on The Encyclopaedia of Hinduism. In 1993 the Moscow 
Publishing House "Nauka" published the book Caste system in
India by Prof. M.M.Kudryavtsev. At present, the indologists at
the Centre are preparing a collective monograph Ethos and
Caste in India. They are also collaborating with the
Anthropological Survey of India and have organized three joint
seminars with their colleagues in Leningrad/St.Petersburg and
Calcutta. 
Indologists at the Museum are active participants in the
orientalist and anthropological conferences held in
St.Petersburg. They submitted four papers for the Kuner
Memorial Conference held on December 23 1993. These papers
represent the variety of topics in which the Centre is
interested, so they are worth discussing in some detail below.

Sofya A.Maretina (PhD) presented the paper entitled `Andaman
Islands: society and nature'. She is well known as an expert
on the minority peoples of India and the author of the series
of monographs on the Naga and other tribes of the
North-Eastern India as well as on the aboriginals of the
Andaman Islands. In her paper dealing with society and nature
in the Andaman Archipelago she analyses the Andaman style of
life and the relationship between the people and nature.
Viewed from the historical perspective, many people have
cultivated their land and changed the previous ecological
balance. Man first changed the natural surrounding, then he
changed his mode of life and social organization in order to
achieve a new equilibrium with the altered pattern of nature.
In the Andaman Islands, the inhabitants made little impact on
nature because they remained hunters and collectors of nuts
and fruits. There was enough food for the aboriginal
population, so there was no necessity for innovation. So far,
there has been no change in methods of obtaining food there. 
N.G.Krasnodembskaya (PhD) is well known as an expert on Sri
Lanka, with a special interest in Ceylonese Buddhism. She has
donated the ethnographic collection she assembled in Sri Lanka
to the museum; she is also engaged in collecting traditional
household utensils for the Museum. Her paper dealt with
methods of caring for and collecting new exhibits for the
Museum collections in the new situation in which the Museum
finds itself confronted with some financial problems.
I.Y.Kotin (MA) dedicated his paper to the memory of Oscar
Lewis. Forty years ago Lewis had settled in the village of
Rani Khera not far from Delhi. He lived in Rani Khera for one
year, which inspired him to publish articles and a book
Village life in modern India, describing the village Rani
Khera under the name Rampur. Igor Kotin visited Rani Khera 40
years after Lewis. In his paper he tries to analyze what has
happened in this Northern Indian village since Lewis left it. 
The paper by V.N.Mazurina deals with mid-summer feasts and
festivals among Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal. 

In February 1994 the indologists at the Centre submitted their
papers to the All Russia Conference `Object in culture'. In
her paper, N.G.Krasnodembskaya describes the traditional
belongings of a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka. S.A.Maretina
presented a paper `The costume and weapons of the Naga and
their symbolic significance'. Igor Y.Kotin submitted two
papers to the conference: `On the symbolism of the ceramics of
the Meos in Harvana and Rajasthan' and `On the symbolism of
Muslim relics in an Indian context'. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE CENTRE'S ACTIVITIES PLEASE
CONTACT:

Nina G. Krasnodembskaya and Igor Y.Kotin
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
Universitetskaya nab. 3
St.Petersburg
Russia
Tel: +7-812-2184122
Fax: +7-812-2180811