Ivan Minayev

Who is Ivan Minayev?

Ivan Pavlovich Minayev or Minayeff was the first Russian Indologist whose disciples included Serge Oldenburg, F. Th. Stcherbatsky, and Dmitry Kudryavsky.

As a student of Vasily Vasiliev at the University of Saint Petersburg he developed an interest in Pali literature and went abroad to prepare a catalogue of Pali manuscripts at the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale. His Russian-language Pali grammar was soon translated into French and English.

Minayev's magnum opus, Buddhism: Untersuchungen und Materialien, was printed in 1887. "Minaev was almost the first European orientalist... to feel that the study of Buddhism and Pali was a must for the proper understanding of ancient Indian history and society".

As a member of the Russian Geographical Society he travelled in India and Burma in 1874—75, 1880, and 1885—86. His travel journals were published in English in 1958 and 1970.