Glimpses of Ancient India through Soviet Eyes

The cultural contacts between India, Central Asia and Russia go back hundreds of years. Recent excavations and researches have brought to light links from Buddhist times to medieval ages and later. This acquaintance of the two countries has been a journey of mutual discoveries. Indo-Uzbek, In do-Turk- men, Indo-Tajik, Indo-Armenian and Indo-Azerbaijan relations serve as a testimony to these contacts of friendship and cooperation. The first eye-witness account of India given by a Russian merchant, Afanasi Nikitin, who visited this country on a goodwill mission in the 15th century (1471-1474), stimulated the interest among his countrymen to know more about this land beyond the Himalayas. It is significant to recall that his description of India was in-corporated in the Sofuskaya Chronicle. Archaeological finds show quite broad relations between Kievan Rus and the Orient. Goods and coins of Oriental origin (including Indian) are to be found in the cultural strata of the 8th and 9th centuries. Connections with India probably arose through the Khazar capital, Itil-Khazaran, at the month of the Volga. Arab sources speak of a numerous Russian colony in this city in the 9th and 10th centuries, and meetings between Russians and Indians occurred in other cities besides Itil. This book is an attempt to reveal the basic specifics of the USSR school of Oriental studies as well as to appreciate, at its true value, its contribution to world Indology. There is no doubt that Soviet studies of ancient India have enriched world Indology and made scholarly discoveries. A qualitatively new stage began after the Great October Revolution of 1917, when Indology was given a new impulse. This book reaffirms that in recent years Soviet Indologists have achieved considerable success in the study of ancient Indian civilization. Besides, this book aims at summing up in general terms the path traversed by Indology in the USSR. Another abiding merit of the book lies in the evidence it has brought forth to show the wholesome effects such studies have had on promoting understanding between our two peoples and assisted in bringing writers, poets, scholars, artists, and common people in both countries closer to each other.