MIRONOV, Nikolaj Dmitrievič. St.Petersburg 25.9.(13.9.)1880 — Ariana, Tunisia 1936. Russian Indologist. After Gymnasium in St.Petersburg in 1891-98 studies at univer­sity there in 1898-99, and in Germany: 1899-1901 at Strassburg under Hübschmann and Leumann, 1901-02 at Berlin under Geldner, Sieg and Pischel, 1902-03 at Bonn under Jacobi. Ph.D. 1903 Strassburg. In 1913-18 worked in Asian Museum in St.Petersburg. After the revolution he was for a while in Manchuria (1922), in 1925/27 in Shanghai working for a Japanese Buddhist society translating Sanskrit texts to English (letter to Vijayendra Suri 1925), in 1928 in Paris. In 1928 moved to Tunisia, where he spent the rest of his life. Many details of his later life are missing. Perhaps the reason of his going to Tunisia was that the remnant of the Russian white navy was located in Bizerte.
NM was mainly a scholar of Buddhist and Jaina philology, also interested in the Vedas. He was a specialist of MSS. and his two MSS. catalogues are a much used standard works.
– “Spisok sanskritskih rukopisej požertvovannyh baronom A. A. fon Stal’-Gol’štejnom”, Izv. I.A.N. 6:2:18, 1908, 1303-1309; “Iz rukopisnyh materialov èkspedicii M. M. Berezovskogo v Kuču”, ibid. 6:3:8, 547-562 = Mél. As. 14, 1910, 97-112; “Otčet o zanjatijah v Nacional’noj biblioteke v Pariže letom 1914 g.”, Izv. I.A.N. 6:9:14, 1915, 1449-1450.
– “Džinistskie zametki 1. Siddharṣi. 2. Devabhadra i ego Nyāyâvatāraṭippana”, Izv. I.A.N. 6:5:5, 1911, 349-354 & 6:5:7, 1911, 501-508 = Mél. As. 15, 1912, 101-106 & 155-162.
– review of M. I. Orlov’s Russian Hitopadeša in Žurn. Min. nar. prosveščenija 43:2: 2, 1914, 350-358; articles on India in Russian Encyclopedia, English articles published in India.
– Katalog indijskih rukopisej. 6+360 p. Katalogi Aziatskogo muzeja Akad. nauk 1. St.P. 1914.
– edited the 2nd edition of Minayev’s Mahāvyutpatti. Bibl. Buddh. 13. St.P. 1910-11.
– Katalog indijskoj rukopisej Rossijskoj publičnoj biblioteki. 1. Petrograd 1918.
– with S. M. Shirokogoroff: “Sramana-Shaman. Etymology of the word ‘Shaman’”, JRAS-NCBr 55, 1924, 105-130.
– “Buddhist Miscellanea: 1. Avalokiteśvara–Kuan-Yin. 2. Central asian Recensions of the Sad-dharma Pundarika. 3. Future and Conditional in Buddhist Sanskrit”, JRAS 1927, 241-279; “Dignāga’s Nyāyapraveśa and Haribhadra’s Commentary on it”, Festgabe R. Garbe 1927, 37-46; “Dignāga: Nyāyapraveśa I. Sanskrit Text edited and reconstructed”, T‘oung Pao 28, 1931, 1-24; “The Prajñāpāramitā­hṛdayasūtra as an Inscription”, Urusvati Journal 3, 1933.
– “Kuchean Studies 1. Indian loan-words in Kuchean”, RO 6, 1928 (1929), 89-169 & 274-276; “Aryan Vestiges in the Near East of the Second Millenary B.C.”, AO 11, 1933, 140-217.
Sources: Vita in diss.; scattered notes in Bongard-Levin & Vigasin 1984; death noted in ZDMG; part of bibliography in Livotova & Portugal’ 1966; *Vigasin 2008, 499-503 with photo (incl. his wife); three letters in Letters to Vijayendra Suri. Bombay & L. 1959, 172–178.