Letter of
Recommendation
1997
Name of Applicant: M. I. Mikhailov
Title of the Project: “Translation and historical-cultural analysis of the ancient Indian epic VALMIKI’S RAMAYANA"
On the basis of the evident antiquity of the Ramayana and of its unrivaled popularity and influence in the traditional culture of India and the adjacent regions of Asia, there is no need to justify the importance of producing the full Russian and Belarusian translations and new study of this important monument of the world culture.
Producing of a complete accurate and readable prose translation with dense annotation, reflecting new developments in this area of the world scholarship, will enable scholarly public (philologists, historians, philosophers) and wide circles of general readers to judge for themselves the importance of this cultural monument and historical source together with major problems of its interpretation.
It is hardly probable in this case to oppose scientific and practical value of the work. This research, certainly, will introduce a strong oriental, first of all, Indological, current into the development of Human sciences in Belarus'. Alongside, it will give an opportunity to Belarusian readers to be acquainted directly with the essential parts of spiritual culture of the Indian peoples.
The research, reflecting the Indological and Sanskritological problems concentrated around "Ramayana", aims at promoting and formation of purely new for Belarus' oriental scientific discipline.
The author's approach is adequate and his efforts at the solution of these problems must yield success, though the necessity of updating and perfection of methodology in approaching to this or that particular problem cannot be excluded.
The researched material is covered maximally: the literature in all main languages of India (Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali) and Europe (English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish) is encompassed.
As the given project opens new direction in Belarusian scholarship, it is reasonable and expedient to support the initiatives of the author.
| Doctor of Philology, Prof. I. D. SEREBRYAKOV |