PARALLELS AND COMPARISONS. Proceedings of the Fourth Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Puranas. September 2005 / Ed. by P. Koskikallio; Gen. ed. M. Jesic. Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Siences and Arts, 2009. 550 p.

This peer-reviewed publication is a collection of papers delivered at the Fourth Dubrovnik International Conference on Sanskrit Epics and Puranas. The Dubrovnik Conference is held in Zagreb every three years and is one of the most famous international forums, the main focus of which is the study of the Indian epic and Puranas. The fourth Dubrovnik Conference continues the tradition of the first three: it is devoted to various aspects of the study of Sanskrit texts on the example of the epic and Puranas.

The special theme of both the conference and the final collection was "parallels and comparisons". Greg Bailey (Australia) tried to explain why this particular topic was chosen for the conference in his article " Introduction: Parallels and Comparisons "(p. 1-20), where he showed the theoretical importance of such a topic not only for indology, but also for philology in general. He noted that any text analysis involves a constant search for parallels, which are the reason for intensive study of similarities and identities, differences and inconsistencies. "Parallels", as a rule, invite you to "comparison" - the second leitmotif of the conference. G. Bailey spoke about various ways of applying" parallels "and" comparisons " in research, including in the articles presented in this collection. His article plays an important role for this collection, as it brings together all the works and explains why the articles were so diverse in topics, methodology and material in one edition. In total, the collection of reports, in addition to the introductory article by G. Bailey, includes 20 articles by leading researchers of Sanskrit texts.

A well-known researcher of the Mahabharata, Muneo Tokunaga (Japan), in his article "Vedic exegesis and Epic Poetry: notes on atrapy udaharanti" (p. 21-30), spoke about the history of the term itihasa, which in scientific literature is perceived as the name of works of a certain genre, including myths and legends. Having extensive experience with texts, he was able to turn the study of this seemingly private issue into a serious study of the history of the formation of the text of the Mahabharata. The author analyzed all the cases of using this term in the Mahabharata (191): in 138 cases, it is used as part of the introductory phrase with the words atrāpy udāharanti, which can be roughly translated as "here also given as an example". After examining all the contexts, M. Tokunaga came to the conclusion that the texts referred to by this term are different in content, form, and style. Therefore, itihāsa cannot be the name of a literary genre, such as the terms kathā, ākhyāna, purāna, gāthā. The author shows that the word itihasa refers to instructions of a very diverse nature. He divides them into those that explain the content of the Mahabharata, illustrate moral and judicial prohibitions, and those that serve as examples in explaining fi-

Parallels and comparisons. Proceedings of the Fourth Dubrovnik International Conference on Sanskrit Epics and Puranas. September 2005 / Ed. by P. Koskikallio; ch. ed. by M. Yezhich. Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2009. 550 p.

philosophical and religious doctrines. As a prototype of itihasa, he considers the explanations in the dharmasutras, the so-called arthavadas, which are illustrations and visual confirmations of the instructions (vidhi) of the sutras. The phrase atrāpy udāharanti, in his opinion, comes from athāpy udāharanti ("now also cited as an example"), used in the dharmasutras and grihyasutras.

M. Tokunaga sees the origins of such texts in the tradition of interpretation (exegesis) of ritual in the Brahmanas, when myths, legends and various stories are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of ritual prescriptions. In the article, he showed that the text of the Mahabharata has gone a long way of development under the strong influence of Vedic exegesis. The moment when the entire epic came to be called the word itihasa marked the final stage of compilations, completing the long process of transforming heroic poetry into what the author called the "magnum opus on Brahmanical and Hindu dharmas". At the end of the article, M. Tokunaga noted that the Ramayana, unlike the Mahabharata, is free from the influence of Vedic exegesis. While the Mahabharata completes the development of Vedic literature, the Ramayana marks the beginning of a new era in the development of Sanskrit literature, which has reached its highest point in classical kavya literature.

The article "A trishtubh-sized hymn in the Bhagavatgita "(p. 31-67) by Mislav Jerzic (Croatia) is a continuation of his many years of research on the structure of the text of the Bhagavatgita. The author believes that the text of the Bhagavad Gita consists of several layers: an epic part, a hymn in the size of trishtubhas, fragments that have parallels in the Upanishads, especially in the Katha and Svetasvatara, as well as texts dedicated to bhakti and some other interpolations. To reconstruct the hymn to M. Yezhich, the research method proposed by him, based on the analysis of small repetitions in the text, allowed. The trishtubh-sized fragments are mainly found in Chapters 2 and 11. In Chapter 2, Arjuna asks trishtubh-sized questions, but Krsna's answers follow the sloka-sized ones. However, later on, in chapter 11, you can find fragments in the size of trishtubhas. They are similar in subject matter and have many, sometimes almost verbatim, parallels with answers in the size of a shlok and therefore can be answers to the questions asked in chapter 2. Having also analyzed the fragments found in other chapters of the Bhagavad Gita in the size oftrishtubh, the author came to the conclusion that most of them once belonged to one piece, which he calls "The hymn in the size of trishtubh" (The Hymn). He made a possible reconstruction of it and presented it in the appendix to the article. His research allowed us to take a fresh look at the history of the Bhagavat Gita and answer the question that generations of philologists have been unable to answer since the time of Wilhelm von Humboldt:what was the original text of the Bhagavat Gita? M. Ezhich proves that it is the trishtubh hymn that is the "Pra-Bhagavatgita".

Article by Georg von Simeon (Norway) " The lunar nature of Balarama/Samkarsana (Balarama / Samkarsana)" (p. 67-88) is devoted to the problem of forming the image of the epic hero Balarama, the brother of Krishna. He investigated the epithets and names of Balarama, such as Raukhineya Rama, Samkarshana and others, his iconographic signs and attributes (plow, etc.), his identification with the cosmic serpent Shesha by comparing many facts contained in texts of different times, as well as in the visual arts. Balarama is associated with the image of the waning moon. In his research, he also touches on other characters of the Mahabharata: Balarama Krishna's brother, Ekanamshi's sister, and some mythological characters who are also associated with lunar symbolism. All the facts collected by him confirm and develop the hypothesis of V. Kirfel that the brothers Krishna and Balarama are connected with the waxing and waning moon. The author does not focus on "parallels" and "comparisons", but shows how similar structures are recreated in the text, which gives him the opportunity to demonstrate one of the possible ways of forming religious concepts using the particular example of Balarama. He sees the origins of myth-making in the reflection of natural phenomena, a kind of reinterpretation of astronomical events and calendar time, which cannot but influence the structure of the Mahabharata and the images of epic heroes.

A number of articles in the collection devoted to the comparison of different cultures are of great interest. Among them is an article by Nick Allen (UK), " The Hanging Man and Indo-European Mythology "(p. 89-107). It appeared in response to the article by Yaroslav Vasilkov " The Parable of

a man hanging from a tree and its archaic origins " ¹, which states that this story is typical of Indo-European mythology. Trying to provide additional evidence for this claim with data that wasn't mentioned by Ya. N. Allei compared the passage from the Mahabharata (11.5-6), which describes a brahmana hanging in a terrible forest like a jackfruit (breadfruit) over a well, with the passage from the Odyssey (12.433-436), where Odysseus hangs like a bat over the whirlpool of Charybdis. Using these examples, drawing on material from a number of other Indian sources, including those related to the Buddhist tradition, he identified 27 analogies between the Indian and Greek versions of this story, confirming that they go back to a single proto-Indo-European source.

Yaroslav Vasilkov (Russia) in his article "Epithet in the Mahabharata: mahābhāga "(pp. 107-120) proposed an original study of this epithet standard for the epic in the Mahabharata. He analyzed all the cases of its use (324) in the monument and all its possible contexts. The epithet mahābhāga ("endowed with a great share"), according to his observations, refers not only to noble warriors (69), but most often to religious figures: ancient rishis, saints and ascetics (118), in the later parts of the Mahabharata - to bhaktas. This epithet can also refer to the gods [49]. The author believes that the most archaic meaning of the word bhāga is "fate", "share".

The most interesting part of the article is the study of a group of 40 cases when the epithet mahābhāga is used together with the words " son "(putra, suta, tanaya, ātmaja, etc.) or" daughter", as well as in phrases together with verbs denoting birth. Y. Vasilkov believes that this is not accidental, and testifies that the" great share " is given to a person at the time of birth. Quite often (69) this epithet is used in the feminine gender (mahābhāgā) and refers to female characters. As a rule, it indicates that they are ideal wives, happy in family life and in motherhood. In this context, the word bhāga can mean "marital happiness" and "happiness of motherhood". Semantics of the compound word mahābhāgā (zh. R.) made it possible for Ya. Vasilkov suggests that there was an archaic Indo-Aryan concept, according to which the" happy (unhappy) share " at the time of birth (or immediately after) a person is endowed with a certain cosmic feminine principle, which is embodied in the mother of the newborn. In the epic, the "great share" is a syncretic concept that includes ideas about noble birth, family happiness, success in battle, social life or religious practice. But the author believes that it is the family values that are fundamental: a "great share" is something preserved in the family, passed down from one family member to another.

Adam Bowles (Australia) in the article " On Framing Bhishma's Instructions on Royal Duty. The Mahabharata and the problem of its " composition "(p. 121-136) shows parallels between a small and relatively minor chapter from the Apaddharmaparva (12.161), which is called the Shadgita (song in six parts), and a passage from the Shantiparva (12.7 - 19). Using this example, he reflects on how the didactic parts of the Mahabharata could be interpolated into the overall context of the narrative. The parallelism between the two texts, according to the author, is more a deliberate device than an unconscious result of oral narration. The passages he examines correspond to the beginning and end of Bhishma's instructions on royal duty to Yudhisthira. Both passages are dialogues between the same participants on similar topics and have a similar structure. Part of this is achieved by bringing the caturvarga (four life principles: dharma, artha, kama, moksha) to the fore in both passages, and thus achieving a parallel theme. Both passages are not so much a frame for the didactic body of the Shantiparva texts, but rather compositionally serve to show how much Yudhisthira has changed as a result of Bhishma's instructions. If he initially adheres to the values of trivarga (the three life principles: dharma, artha, kama), then later he should seriously address the problem of moksha. The Shatgita bridges the moksha theme, differentiating the first 161 chapters of the Shantiparva dealing with worldly problems from the Mokshadharmaparva dealing with spiritual problems.

¹ Vassilkov J. Parable of a man hanging in a tree and its archaic background// Jadavpur Journal of Camparative Literature. 32. P. 38-51.

Simon Brodbeck (Great Britain), in his article "The Bharadwaja Model in the Mahabharata "(p. 137-180), examines the descriptions of the life story of the Bharadwaja heroes: Bharadwaja himself, his sons Yavakrita and Drona, and Drona's son Ashwatthaman, and shows that the same descriptions are repeated in all descriptions. specific structural elements and topics that he even highlights in the table at the end of the article. In the narrative, repetitions are designed to determine the role of the characters in relation to their protagonists. Comparing them, the author comes to the conclusion that the same model is repeated in biographies, undergoing changes and modifications. It is conventionally called the "Bharadvaja pattern". In his opinion, it corresponds to the general model of storytelling about enmity or rivalry: the characters achieve what they want or power in unusual ways, often illegal, lose their positions, take the path of revenge, often supernatural forces interfere with what is happening, which balance the chances of rival parties, etc. S. Brodbeck also examines the life stories of Ekalavya (Ekalavya) and Karnas in which the same themes are repeated, although these heroes do not belong to the Bharadwaja family.

Sven Sellmer (Poland) in his article "On the semantics of the mental in the Indian Epic: Remarks on comparisons and methodology" (pp. 181-192) offers some comments on the methodology of studying the semantic field of words related to psychology. In his research, he draws on the results of classical studies of mentality in the epic of Homer and notes that Homer uses various terms denoting psychological states, which are formed from the names of body parts (of which three terms mean "heart"). Very often the use of a particular word depends on the position in the verse line. S. Sellmer noted that in the Indian epic, as well as in Greek, there are a number of nouns denoting mentality, and their meaning is not always unambiguous. Such nouns as  manas, citta, cetas, cetanā, antarātman, buddhi, mati, he selected in a special table, which shows all the grammatical characteristics in all cases of their use in the epic. The author gave special comments to the following nouns: i ("heart"), manas ("thought, organ of thought"), buddhi ("ability to think"), ("ability to see", "thought"). He examined the stereotypical expressions in which they occur, as well as the contexts in which they are mentioned, paying attention not only to the semantics of these words, but also to their metrics. Such a study is of great interest to anyone who studies Sanskrit texts and translates them. Some of the results are applicable for text analysis: determining text layers of different times, their origin, and so on. At the same time, the author quite rightly calls for the greatest caution in using the results of the study of epic texts as sources for recreating any historical reconstructions.

Daniella Feller (Switzerland) in her article "Hanuman Jumps and their mythological models" (p. 193-220) examines the description of four jumps of Hanuman in the Ramayana: the jump of little Hanuman to the Sun (Ram. 7. 35-36), the jump across the ocean in search of Sita (Ram. 5.1), two jumps from Lanka to a mountain near Kailasa to get medicinal herbs for Rama and Lakshmana, which he brings along with the top of the mountain (Ram 6.61 and 6.89). As in his previous works, the author traces Vedic and post-Vedic roots in epic plots. She suggests that these stories are based on several mythological models: the myth of flying mountains, jumping across the ocean and flying to the sky as ways to gain immortality.

Andreas Fitzen (Germany) in his article "Reasons for the descent of Vishnu in the prologue to the Krishnacharita - Harivamsa "(p. 221-234) compares the text describing the reasons for the incarnation of Vishnu on earth for its salvation in the Harivamsa (40-45) with the 58th chapter of the first book of the Mahabharata. In the article, he explains in detail how the editors adapt the material in the prologue of the Mahabharata for a text that belongs to a completely different tradition and is associated with the development of the bhakti movement, in which devotion to Krishna is recognized as the main value.

Paolo Magnone (Italy ) devoted his article "Tejas mythologemes in the puranas" (p. 235-256) to the study of the concept of tejas, which is familiar to all those who are interested in the epic and the Puranas, as it occurs in texts countless times in a wide variety of contexts. This article is a continuation of his work "The Development (concept) of 'tejas' from the Vedas to the Puranas " ².

² Magnone P. The development of "tejas" from Vedas to the Puranas // Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sud=[und Ost=] asiens und Archiv fur indische Philosophie. 36 (Suppl. vol.): P. 137-147.

In his research, the author came to the conclusion that in the Vedas tejas meant a certain "substance-power", such as ojas, varcas, or In the Vedantas this concept is combined with the idea of brahman-atman (brahman-atman). In the puranas, however, tejas becomes a permanent attribute of the Supreme Godhead in his various manifestations. At the same time, it is presented as a kind of divine substance, understood quite abstractly, which has both creative and destructive potential. In this article, P. Magnone explored the concept of tejas in relation to each of the main Hindu gods: Brahma, Vishnu, Surya, Shiva and Devi. He showed in detail that the concept of tejas, adapting to various divine characters, takes on different shades. In his opinion, the mythology of Shiva and Devi stands apart, where there is a well-known opposition between the concepts of tejas and shakti, while tejas (cf. r.) embodies an impersonal and abstract principle, and shakti (w. r.) embodies a feminine and dynamic aspect that complements the male static aspect.

Kenneth K. Welpy (Great Britain), in his article "The Bhagavatapurana as a reflection of the Mahabharata "(p. 257-277), describes how the Mahabharata material is reinterpreted in the Bhagavata. The author will select 9 fragments of text that retell the plots of the Mahabharata, and analyze their content, devoting a separate paragraph to each. He shows that the Bhagavatapurana does not quote the most important subjects of this epic, but rather those involving Krishna or Vishnu, and each time these references are connected with their worship. The author focuses not so much on how the Bhagavata reads the Mahabharata's famous subjects, but on how the concept of "bhakti" and the central object of bhakti - Vasudeva-Krishna-are interpreted in this work. He comes to the conclusion that the editors of the Bhagavatapurana use quotations from the Mahabharata mainly for their own purposes. explanation and development of the ideology of bhakti, which in the studied fragments of the text permeates the general picture of dharma with its laws and regulatory functions. At the same time, the Bhagavatapurana becomes a kind of" commentary " that reinterprets and explains the older text from the point of view of the worldview that had changed by that time. I note that the study of how the Mahabharata is refracted in the Puranas is very fruitful. Mahabharata plots, legends, and parables are often retold on the pages of the puranas, undergoing dramatic changes. These changes can tell a lot to the attentive researcher, but very rarely do they come to their attention.

The article "The Legendary Life of Upamanyu" (p. 279-302) by Kristail Barois (France) is dedicated to the Shaivite sage Upamanyu, who is known from a number of sources: various Puranas, mainly Shaivite, and the Mahabharata. It concerns two legends related to his life: how Upamanyu performed the vow of worshiping Shiva as a child for the sake of getting an ocean of milk, and how Krsna came to Upamanyu's retreat to perform austerities for the worship of Shiva. Some texts contain both stories, others contain one story, and in the Mahabharata one story is inserted into the other. K. Barua reveals the parallels and differences of these versions and on this basis shows how the process of transformation of the same story from the Mahabharata to the Mahapuranas, Upapuranas and Sthalapuranas takes place.

In the article" Puranization" of Nepalese mahatmya literature (p. 303-312), Horst Brinkhaus (Germany) examines four Nepalese works of the XIV-XVI centuries related to the mahatmya genre. Three of them are Shaivite - "Pashupatipurana "" Nepala-mahatmya "("Nepalamahatmya") and" Himavatkhanda " - and one Buddhist - "Svayambhupurana" According to the author, both Hindu and Buddhist texts of this genre have passed through the same three stages of development. At the first stage, they consist of short texts, mostly legends related to specific localities. In the intermediate stage, short texts are combined with each other and converted into a more or less complete text. Their very appearance is connected with the desire to raise the status of various territories of Nepal, to include them in the sacred topography. At the third stage, the texts become much larger and include parts devoted to the history of the universe, cosmography and theology. In their content, they begin to resemble the Sanskrit puranas related to the" great tradition " (Mahapuranam), usually associated with Hinduism.

The Buddhist "Swayambhupurana", which has various versions, also testifies to the "puranization" of the local tradition: it is not only called the purana, but is also formed according to the same laws of development as the Hindu puranas, taking parts from other texts, including the Hindu "Himavatkhanda", adapting them for a Buddhist audience. Great value

This article is given the fact that its author, along with the Hindu puranas, explores the Buddhist one. This gives him the opportunity to see the general laws of the formation of such works, which are predetermined not only by the cultural tradition and religion, but also by the peculiarities of the text of this genre.

Olga Serbaeva Saraogi (Germany) in her article "An attempt to reconstruct the relative chronology of Shaivite Puranic and Shaivite Tantric texts based on passages dedicated to Yogini" (p. 313-348) examines the influence of Tantrism on the Puranic tradition. She does this using the example of texts dedicated to the Yogini, which begins to appear in the studied texts around the fifth century and becomes widespread in the XI-XII centuries. A yogini can perform in various forms: as a real woman, as a mythological creature, as a form of cosmic energy. In the early texts, yoginis are mentioned only among other mythological beings (gans, mothers, etc.). According to the author's observations, the texts of the puranas over time turn more and more to the female theme. The later the text, the more Tantric elements it contains. At the same time, they fit into the overall picture of the world, and what was considered secret Tantric knowledge becomes an integral part of popular Puranic texts.

Renata Zenen-Thime (UK) explores in her article "Buddhist Fairy Tales in the Mahabharata?" (p. 349-372) tales from the Mahabharata that have parallels with the Jatakas. In total, she identified 17 stories, of which nine are animals, and eight are people. In the Mahabharata, they appear in books 1, 3, 5 (4 fairy tales), 7, 13, 12 (9 fairy tales), 14. The author dwells in detail on four fairy tales that have a large number of correspondences with variants of jatakas. Studying and interpreting all possible intertextual influences, parallels and differences, she offers a serious philological study of each of the variants of fairy tales and comes to the conclusion that close correspondences indicate that the fairy tales used in the Buddhist and Yidu traditions go back to common pre-Buddhist sources.

Klara Gentz-Moachanin (Croatia), in her article "The Epic versus Buddhist Literature: Using the Vidhurapanditajataka as an example "(p. 373-398), follows Heinrich Luder in exploring the parallels between the Vidhurapanditajataka and the episode from the" Sabhāparvan "of the Mahabharata describing a dice game. Coincidences are not limited to dice games: the main characters are Vidhura / Vidura (Vidhural Vidura), Dhananjaya / Arjuna Dhananjaya the place where the action takes place is Indapatta/Indraprastha (Indapattal Indraprastha). Analyzing the parallels and differences between these texts, K. Gentz-Moachanin showed the ways of forming such literature. In her opinion, the jataka does not borrow its subjects directly from the Mahabharata, but goes back to the so - called floating literature-the storehouse of myths and legends from which both the Mahabharata and the Puranas drew their material. In both the Buddhist and epic traditions, wandering stories are adapted depending on the purpose of the text and the religious orientation.

Eva De Klerk (Belgium) 'Jain Harivamsha and the Mahabharata tradition' (p. 399-422) also discusses the parallels between texts belonging to different religious traditions. The article shows how the Jains created their own "countertradition" based on the Hindu tradition: the heroes of the "Mahabharata " and" Ramayana " were integrated into the so-called Jain history, which tells about the life of 63 mahapurushas and includes 24 tirthankaras, 12 cakravartins and 9 triads of other heroes, including Rama, Lakshmana, Ravana (eighth triad), Balarama, Krishna and Jarasandha (tenth triad). The author mainly explores the peculiarities of transmission in the Jain tradition of the story of Krishna and his relatives. It has limited itself to the oldest version, which is part of the Harivamshapurana, created by the Digambara monk Jinasena Punnata and dated to 783 AD. In the Harivamsapurana, the section dedicated to Krsna is called "Nemicarita". E. De Klerk compared this text with the version of the Ramayana, and also traced how this plot developed not only in the Digambri, but also in the Svetambar tradition up to the XVI century. The article traces how, as a result of the development of the text, undesirable Hindu elements were excluded from individual episodes and the story of Krishna was adapted to Jain doctrine.

Andre Couture (Canada), in his article "Perceptions of Krishna's Childhood in three Jain Sanskrit texts" (p. 423-446), also turned to Jain stories about Krishna, but his attention was drawn to less studied descriptions of Krishna's childhood. He offered a detailed comparison

Hindu texts describing Krishna's childhood (mainly chapters 30-78 of the Harivam-shi), with the corresponding Jain texts: Gunabhadra's Uttarapurana, Jinasena Punnata's Harivamshapurana, and Hemachandra's Trisashtisalakapuru-sacaritra.

Nicolas Dejenne (France), in his article "Parashurama as the torchbearer of India's Rebirth (Bharat) in a Modern reading of its History" (p. 447-468), presented a new version of Parashurama's deeds, described in the poem "Jay Parasuram" in Hindi. This poem was written in 1997 by a Madhya Pradesh brahmana named Omkaral Sharma. The poem consists of a huge number of stories, mostly borrowed from Sanskrit works-epics and puranas, the main character of which is Parasurama. However, unlike ancient and medieval texts, which most of the articles in the collection are devoted to, the poem is an author's text with a pronounced political and cultural context. By comparing the actions of Parashurama described in the poem with their original sources, N. Dejenne showed how much all this material was modified by the author: for example, the poem softened unpleasant for the modern reader and cruel episodes (the murder of kshatriyas, the beheading of Renuka - Parashurama's mother, etc.). Many changes are caused by the fact that the poem refers to the "Kshatriya" and "Kshatriya". a new trend in modern literature that emerged under the strong influence of the national movement. In literature, it manifests itself in the fact that the heroes of the Indian epic (in this case, Parashuram) adapt and integrate into modernity. In the poem, the figure of Parashurama is transformed into the savior of the sacred land of India. Traditional Brahmin values (knowledge, asceticism, charity, selflessness) are combined in this poem with modern democratic values - equality, universal education, the elimination of poverty, blurring the lines between different castes. N. Dejenne's article completes the collection and plays an important role in its composition - it seems to throw a bridge from ancient times to the present and shows that the heroes of the epic get a new life in our days.

The collection is of great interest to all those who are interested in the culture of India, and especially for those who study Sanskrit texts. Written by leading researchers of the epic and puranas, it gives an idea of what priorities exist in this area, offers new approaches and methods of working with the text. Different authors responded differently to the stated topic of the conference "Parallels and Comparisons". Some study and compare different layers of the same text at different times, while others look for parallels and differences in the tests of different eras and traditions. A number of articles are devoted to how well-known subjects are interpreted in the texts of other religions. I would particularly like to note that the collection contains quite a lot of articles [5] devoted in one way or another to the study of the Puranas - texts that, unlike the Mahabharata and Ramayana, receive undeservedly little attention in Oriental studies. It is significant that the word "puranas" is included in the name of the Dubrovnik Conference, raising the prestige of these works in the eyes of researchers, inviting them to actively study the rich puranic tradition.

The book is an example of how to publish such literature: well-edited material, perfectly designed apparatus, quotes from sources in Sanskrit. The publication is provided with an index of quoted passages from the Mahabharata and other Sanskrit sources, a general index that includes realities, concepts, and names. Summaries of articles in Croatian are attached at the end.

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