Our colleague, Candidate of Historical Sciences, employee of the History Department, has passed away

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Nikolaevich Lelyukhin. He was a modest, sweet man, incredibly in love with the business, original thinking, who suggested some unusual ideas, who worked alone because we no longer have specialists in early medieval North Indian and Nepalese epigraphy in our country, who created an exhaustive directory of early Indian inscriptions on the Internet, which serves Indologists of all countries, including Indian ones. This guide contains all the inscriptions of the Gupta, Maukhari, Licchava, Kadamba, Ikshvaku dynasties, as well as a selection of epigraphic monuments from Bagh, Orissa and Andhra. We list the names of early Indian states, which will not tell most readers anything, in order to show that his creative path lay apart from the interests of many of his colleagues, including indologists. He had a dream to collect all the inscriptions of early medieval India and Nepal and conduct their general analysis to reveal the process of state formation in India.

He made his way into science solely because of his extraordinary determination, hard work and perseverance. When Dmitry finished school, his mother died. A 17-year-old teenager found a job as a laboratory assistant in GIPROTSVETMETOBRABOTKA. He was a worker in the geological party in Uzbekistan, got a job as a curator of funds in the Central State Military Historical Archive (TSVIA). In 1975-1977. after serving in the army, he again worked as a laboratory assistant in the Central State Archive of Internal Affairs, but soon moved to the position of senior archivist of the Archive of the Higher Attestation Commission, and then became acting head of the archive.

Working in the archive, D. N. Lelyukhin graduated in absentia from the Historical and Archival Institute. Having decided to devote himself to the study of Indian civilization, he independently learned Sanskrit and became a candidate at the Department of Ancient World History of the Moscow State University Faculty of History. It should be mentioned that throughout his life Dmitry Nikolaevich was in a difficult financial situation, it was necessary to constantly earn extra money for the maintenance of the family.

In 1989, he defended his PhD thesis on "The structure of the Ancient Indian state in the first half of the 1st millennium AD (On treatises on politics)" and entered the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a junior researcher, where he completely immersed himself in scientific work.

He worked with great dedication on the interpretation of extremely difficult to understand sources: not fully preserved Sanskrit inscriptions and the "Genealogy of the Gopals", revealing the specifics of the historical thinking of early medieval Indians, including those who lived in Nepal, reconstructing their communal and political system. His contribution to the compilation of issues of the renewed journal "Epigraphy of the East" and to the organization of the annual scientific conference "Roerich Readings"is great.

He managed to publish several very original and valuable articles and prepared two monographs for publication: "The State in ancient India" and "The history of early Nepal according to epigraphy" (deposited in INION RAS). When the school of Indian Epigraphic studies is revived, there will be new specialists for whom his works will become launching pads.

We will miss him.

COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS

MAIN SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF D. N. LELYUKHIN

Ancient India // Interstate Relations and Diplomacy in the Ancient East, Moscow, 1987, pp. 177-213 (together with A. A. Vigasin).

Bongard-Levin G. M., Vigasin A. A. Image of India / / Bulletin of Ancient History. 1987. N 4. pp. 153-157.

Some features of the structure of the ancient Indian state according to the" Arthashastra " of Kautilya // Vestnik MSU. Ser. 8. Istoriya [History]. 1989. N 2. pp. 69-78.

Gosudarstvo, administratsiya i politika v "Arthashastra" Kautil'i [State, Administration and Politics in the "Arthashastra" of Kautil'i]. 1993. N 2. pp. 4-24.

Universal bibliographic database of Indian inscriptions / / Databases on the history of Eurasia in the Middle Ages, Moscow, 1995, Issue 1, pp. 16-21 (together with V. V. Vertogradova, A. A. Stolyarov, Yu. Ya. Tsygankov).

Kamandaka's "Nitisara" and Kautilya's "Arthashastra" / / Sthapakashraddha (Collection of articles in memory of G. A. Zograf). St. Petersburg, 1995, pp. 428-441.

Derzhava Mauryev i problema drevnevostochnogo gosudarstva [The Power of the Mauryans and the Problem of the Ancient Eastern State]. Moscow, 1996, pp. 38-44 (together with A. A. Vigasin). The same in English, Moscow, 1997, pp. 57-63.

Gosudarstvo v drevnoi Indii [The State in Ancient India], Moscow, 1997 (deposited in INION RAS).

State and Administration in Kautilya's "Arthashastra" // X World Sanskrit Conference. International Association of Sanskrit Studies: Jan. 3-9, 1997, Taralabaru Kendra, Bangalore. English Abstracts. New Delhi, 1997. P. 98-99.

Kontseptsiya idealnogo tsardva v "Arthashastra" Kautilya i problema struktury drevneindiyskogo gosudarstva [The concept of an ideal kingdom in the "Arthashastra" of Kautilya and the problem of the structure of the Ancient Indian state]. Moscow, 1998. The same: 2nd ed., ispr. Moscow, 2001, pp. 9-148.

Novy klad darstvennykh gramot guptskogo vremeni na med'nykh plabkakh iz Bagh [A new treasure of Gupta-era gift certificates on copper tablets from Bagh]. Epigrafika Vostoka [Epigraphy of the East], Moscow, 1998, issue 25, pp. 69-81.

Structure of the Mauryan Empire according to the Edicts of Ashoka // Bulletin of Ancient History. 1998. N 2. pp. 115-129.

State and Administration in Kautilya's "Arthashastra" // Indian Heritage. Burdwan, 1998. No. 1. Idem. // Alternatives of Social Evolution. Vladivostok, 2000.

Secret service and Intrigue in the ancient Indian political theory / / Political intrigue in the East, Moscow, Eastern Lit., 2000, pp. 35-44.

Gosudarstvo i administratsiya v "Arthashastra" Kautil'i [State and Administration in the "Arthashastra" of Kautil'i]. Alternative ways to Civilization, Moscow: Logos, 2000, pp. 292-301.

Inscription of the Kadambi king Ravivarman from Gudnapura / / Epigraphy of the East. 2001.Vol. 26. pp. 99-107.

Problems and priorities in creating digital libraries for Oriental studies (author's and user's position) //

Novye infokommunikatsionnye tekhnologii v sotsial'nykh naukakh i obrazovanii [New information and communication technologies in social sciences and education].

The problem of forming the socio-political structure of early society and the state according to epigraphy. Nepal of the Lichchav period / / Gosudarstvo na drevnem Vostoke [State in the Ancient East], Moscow: Vostochny lit., 2004, pp. 319-341.

The emergence of the Licchava kingdom in Nepal / / India Tibet. Text and around the text, Moscow: East Lit., 2004, pp. 142-168.

An inscription from Dudhpani. Problema interpretatsii sanskritskoy "politicheskoy" terminologii [The problem of interpretation of Sanskrit "political" terminology] / / ALAICA: Collection of scientific works of Russian Orientalists, prepared for the 70th anniversary of Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences L. B. Alaeva. Moscow: Vostochny lit., 2004. pp. 167-174.

The Dual Kingdom phenomenon in Nepal // To India of the Spirit... Collection of Articles, Moscow: East Lit., 2008, pp. 228-246.

Ways of migration of the Lichchava clan to the Kathmandu Valley and the history of the formation of their state in Nepal / / Voprosy epigrafiki. 2008. Issue No. 2. pp. 14-23.

The tradition of literature "on politics" in the inscriptions of the early Kadambs / / Epigraphy of the East. 2008. Issue 27, pp. 177-191.

The king is the protector of dharma. Practical aspect of the ideological concept // Questions of epigraphy. 2009. Issue 3. Moscow, 2009. pp. 16-29.

Genealogy of the Gopala Kings (Gopalarajavamsavali) - source study characteristics // Vostochny archiv, Moscow, 2009. Issue 2 (20), pp. 4-13.

Collective governments and their role in the structure of the Indian State // History and modernity. 2009. N 1. pp. 56-72.

Gramoty Amshuvarmana iz Kharigaon: izmeneniya v vnutrennoi i fiskal'noi politike Lichchavov v VII-VIII vv. po vedeniyam napisisei [Letters of Amshuvarman from Kharigaon: changes in the internal and fiscal policy of the Lichchavs in the VII-VIII centuries according to the inscriptions]. Epigrafika Vostoka, Moscow, 2009, issue 28, pp. 131-154.

Features of the socio-political structure of early Nepal according to the inscriptions of Licchavis // Epigraphy East. 2011. Issue 29, pp. 133-147.

Epigraphy of the Lichchavas: a source study essay. Typology, structure and methodology of content analysis of inscriptions // Questions of epigraphy. Issue 6. Moscow, 2012, pp. 251-314.

Social structure of early Nepalese society. Grama and panchali in the inscriptions of the Lichchavas / / India-Tibet: text and cultural phenomena. Roerich Readings 2006-2010, Moscow, 2012, pp. 130-146.

Features of the social and state structure of Nepal and India of the VI-VIII centuries according to epigraphy. Organization of management / / Epigraphy of the East. 2013. Issue 30, pp. 64-106.

Features of the early state structure in Nepal and India. Adhikaranas in the context of Gupta and Nepalese Licchhava inscriptions / / Voprosy epigrafiki. Issue 7, Part 1, Moscow, 2014, pp. 299-343.

Early history of Nepal according to epigraphy, Moscow: IV RAS, 2014 (deposited in INION RAS).

The body of inscriptions collected by D. N. Lelyukhin can be found on the website: www.indepigr.narod.ru.