Tatyana Yakovlevna Elizarenkova (September 17, 1929,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

- September 5, 2007,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

) was a distinguished

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

and linguist, known for her study of the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

. She was described by

Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...

as "the greatest living scholar of the

RigVeda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...

, and certainly the greatest linguist of the RigVeda".Wendy Doniger's preface in In 1972 she published a translation of selected Rigvedic hymns into

, which eventually evolved into a complete translation of

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...

in the following decades, published by Nauka 1989-1999 (3 volumes). Her complete Russian translation of Atharvaveda was published in 2005-2010 (3 volumes). In 1976, together with her husband Vladimir Nikolayevich Toporov, she published in English a linguistic analysis of

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

: ''The Pali Language''. She was also an expert on

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, and published numerous works on its grammar. Elizarenkova and Toporov were also the chief driving forces of Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School.

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

had honored her with the

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in 2004 for her contributions in the study of

Publications

* ''Aorist v "Rigvede"'', 1950 * ''I︠A︡zyk pali'', 1965 * ''Issledovanii︠a︡ po diakhronicheskoĭ fonologii indoariĭskikh i︠a︡zykov'', 1974 * ''The Pāli language'', 1976 * ''Grammatika vediĭskogo i︠a︡zyka'', 1982 * ''Vediĭskiĭ i︠a︡zyk'', 1987 * ''Language and style of the Vedic R̥ṣis'', 1993 * ''Words and things in the R̥gveda'', 1995

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elizarenkova, Tatyana 1929 births 2007 deaths Linguists from Russia Russian Indologists Moscow State University alumni Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education Women linguists 20th-century linguists