ИСТИНА

The lecture will focus on the perception of India in general and Punjab in particular by two Russian travellers who visited the Land of Five Rivers in the XIXth century. Prince Alexei Saltykov came to India twice (in 1841-1843 and 1845-1846) as a voyager and an artist. He described his journey in a series of letters to his elder brother and depicted it in a large number of drawings, watercolours and sketches that were later published as separate editions. General Andrei Snesarev had another mission: he toured Punjab and North India in 1899-1900 to investigate territories between the Russian Turkestan and British India, and to get reconnaissance information about the Anglo-British army. Later he authored several research books on India’s geography, ethnology, economics, and culture. Though Alexei Saltykov and Andrei Snesarev looked at India and Punjab through different lenses, they had much in common in their most positive and respectful attitude to the country and its inhabitants.