ʻWiedervereinigungʼ der russischen und westlichen Indologie?

The considerations expounded here have been triggered by two recent Indological publications, viz. those named at the very beginning of the article. The first of these forms the historical starting point for the brief sketch of the relations between Russian and Western, especially German Indology from ca. 1850 down to the present day, for which, however, other sources, first of all books and articles of Russian authors, were also used (§1). It is, however, the second publication, viz. part I of the Commemoration Volume for the famous Russian Indologist and Vedist T. JA. Elizarenkova, which is the centre of attention: the present essay is first and foremost a review-article of 32 contributions to this volume (§2, i.e. 2.1–2.32). In the final part (§3) a general analysis of the various contributions is attempted, first of all with regard to the mutual knowledge of the work done by Russian Indologists on the one hand, and western Indologists, on the other, and it is suggested that in order to overcome the deficiencies which have been diagnosed an international meeting of the two groups of scholars be organized in the near future