 The Himalayas, overpowering, magical and mysterious. The mighty guardians of the Indian subcontinent, the lofty peaks that witnessed the meeting and merging of cultures and created spaces for ideas of tolerance and brotherhood to go across. The gorges and passes that opened out for people to exchange the produce of their labour through the fabled silk root and gave shelter to those seeking spiritual bliss. These endless ranges and the mystique of India have attracted travellers, scholars and artists from different parts of the world for ages. The Indian travels of three eminent Russian artists in the 19th century was yet another link in this long chain. The people of Russia and India, each with their cultural richness and diversity, have shared a mutual fascination for long, building links that have been strengthened by each succeeding generation. Alexei Saltikov, Veseli Varyshigan and Nikolai Rerik spent several years travelling, experiencing and painting the multitude that is India. The three unwittingly laid the foundation for the Indo-Russian friendship that was to bloom in the 20th century. A relationship that has spanned all realms of human enterprise, economic, political, social and cultural. That of the three masters was one of abiding interest in the traditions, philosophy and the people of India. In the works of all the three, we see the development of a complex dialogue between their subject and their craft. Born in 1806 into the Russian royal family, Alexei Saltikov was driven by a desire to see as much as he could. He travelled widely always carrying his colours, pencils and charcoal with him. This is the time when the academic circles in Russia had begun to acquire detailed knowledge about India, not only through European translations, but also through Russian scholars. Prince Alexei Dmitrievich Saltikov was born in 1806 and died in 1859. He was born in St. Petersburg, died in Paris, but the most significant part of his life is related to India. He travelled across India in 1841, 1943 and 1845, in 1946. Alexei Dmitrievich was not only a brave traveler, he was an artist-lover. And this is especially expensive for us, because the drawings he left were the first evidence of the Russian-Indian connections in the imaginary art. For the first time, India was seen by the eyes of a Russian artist. Saltikov visited India in 1840, when the British had not seized all parts of the country and the throne at Delhi was still occupied by the Mughals. Saltikov was fascinated by everything he saw, Indian costumes, ornaments, temples and religious practices. His work began to reflect the sights and colours of India. Very soon his collection of letters from India filled with watercolours and etchings became a sensation in the art world. During his two years stay in India, Saltikov visited Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Central India and parts of North India. Despite the British readiness to host him, he preferred to rent out cheap lodges and saris to live among the people in order to observe things closely. Following Saltikov, India reflected in its work many Russian artists. This is Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin, this is Nikolai Rerekh, these are less known artists Gritsenko, Samokish, Karazin, all of them, undoubtedly, deserve attention and respect. But all of them came to India much later than Saltikov. His first, very open, very sincere, very attentive, kind-hearted, kind-hearted look on India is the look of a Russian man who tries to recognize a new country for him and the Indian people as close as possible and with an open heart and soul. Saltikov painted almost everything he saw in India, religious processions in the Rameshwaram and Kanchipuram temples, the Nawab of Lucknow riding an elephant, people on the streets, the women, the soldiers and the street magicians. Looking at his drawings and paintings on India, one is struck by his eagerness to show everything in motion. The reasons for the ever-present motion in Saltikov's work have been debated for long. Is it just a stylistic device? Or does it, in fact, depict the socio-political tensions of the times? Saltikov was in India for a few years before the first struggle for independence in 1857 and must have been witness to the growing anti-British sentiments among the Indian people. And it is likely that the motion in his work draws inspiration from this tension. Yes, of course. I show my favorite drawings. Saltikov's journey to Palankini in the capital is equal to the Punjab between Lothian and Amritsar. Saltikov depicted himself there, he sits there in Palankini. He is carried by the settlers. The journey takes place at night because of the settlers with the torch. And here are the images of the simple Indians we see in the drawings of Saltikov. Here is the water nose on the right, on the left, a woman with a moustache on her head. These are simple, boring, very warm images. Here he depicted the court king Lahore. Another master who came to India was the celebrated Russian painter Vasily Vereshyagan, independent and unorthodox. Vereshyagan shared the democratic views characteristic of the Russian intellectuals of his day. He began painting early in his life and was to work as a war painter with Russian troops. He believed that no scientist, artist or musician could be considered enlightened if they did not relate to the stern realities of life. Vereshyagan travelled extensively, sketching and painting in Syria, Japan, Cuba and Palestine. But after all this it was India that beckoned him and he set out for India along with his wife in 1873. Vereshyagan travelled widely visiting not just the then emerging cultural centres of India like Bombay, Agra and Delhi, but also poor mountain areas like Kashmir and Ladakh and the neighbouring mountain kingdoms of Sikkim and Nepal. He got to know the local traditions, ways of life, customs and culture. Vereshyagan is an artist who is also known as a traveler. He thought that he would be able to conquer the highest peaks of the mountain for his whole life. He thought that the world is not so huge for one person. He thought so, but he really did a lot. After his big trip to Turkestan he moved to India. He was going there for a long time. He was collecting material to find out about this wonderful country. But this country, of course, conquered him. It was more than he was able to read in books, see in some illustrations, pictures. Because few people knew about India then. And, of course, when he brought his famous new series about India, it was a great portrait, a story about a wonderful nation, a wonderful country, full of charming, romantic beauty. Especially of the Hindu community. Also did several studies depicting Indian Muslims. The architecture of India fascinated Vereshyagan. He sketched and painted buildings, monuments and structures endlessly. The famous Taj Mahal in Agra symbolized for him the perfection of harmony between architecture and nature. As Mariah said, there is nothing in Europe that can surpass Taj, a place which breeds in solemn tranquility. The sensitivity of treatment seen in his portrayal of the Taj is also witnessed in several other studies, like the lake in the evening. Vereshyagan's work in India stands out because of its colours, the clarity of composition and well thought out motives, his ability to capture the vibrant colours, the beauty of the natural surroundings, the originality of national costumes and the exotic beauty of the country. The great splendour of Indian Arrest Crassie makes even his sketches come out like fully executed paintings. Vereshyagan's portrayal of the ordinary people is equally inspired by his work in India. He is a great artist, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, he is a writer, the ordinary people is equally incisive and sensitive. He captures them in the daily struggle of survival, locating them in their natural surroundings. The easy flowing lines of his sketches convey the beauty of their soul and the sadness of their existence. Vereshyagan's Indian series are a very important landmark in the evolution of the great master. Not only because of their artistic merit, but also as an authentic document of life in the late 19th century India. So with Vereshyagan we come to the sympathy of the artist with the people, taking a new dimension. He sees poverty, he sees exploitation, he sees oppression and he gives it a radical turn. The last of the trio of Russian masters to visit India was Nikhalaya Rerik, a traveler, scholar, writer, philosopher, campaign of a peace, a great son of Russia, a citizen of the world and a resident of India. Rerik started taking painting lessons at the age of 17, entered the Fine Arts Academy and studied with the landscape painter Arkhib Quincy. He had grown up in a house that was called Iswar. One of the paintings in the sitting room had fascinated him from those early days. The painting was a hauntingly beautiful mountain. He was to see the original, the Kanchenjunga in India. He came here and finally decided to make this magical land his home. Rerik was interested for a very long time. Before the revolution, when he became a well-known artist, he talked a lot about the fact that he was very into the Indian way. He attracted a lot of things in India, ancient Indian education, Indian art, especially as a historian, he was not only an artist, he was also a historian, by the way, and a lawyer. As a historian, he was very interested in the problem of the ancient people's resettlement. And he believed that very recent connections were somehow very close, they were made close to Indian art and culture, and Slavic art. A very famous writer in Dostoevsky, said, beauty will save the world. Rerik added only one word, beauty will save the world, the understanding of beauty. He said, the world around a person is beautiful, but a person simply cannot see this beauty to the end. And the mission of an artist is to open eyes to people, to show this beauty, and he was always looking for such beauty that can pierce a person to the deepest level and make it cleaner and better because he knows how beautiful the world he lives in. And he found such beauty in India, and he found such beauty in Himalayas. He depicted these Himalayas as the top of the human spirit, in which every person should strive in his life. And he believed that he would help people to realize that every person is a part of the cosmos and that the world is beautiful. A man deeply influenced by the ancient culture and rich spiritual traditions of India, Rerik's fascination grew out of his search for the mysterious cradle of civilization and the conviction that basic ethical laws were found in ancient times. Loved about Indian philosophy and Indian religious thought was the whole concept of action that you have to act, that you see in Rerik's work and his life. Rerik tried to capture the eternity of the Himalayas, painting them at dawn when the valleys were still in shadows and at sunset when the peaks glowed like embers. He imbued the mountains with a strange fluidity. The mountains in meteor, Himalayan landscape, four new mountains, the mountains in the mountains, the mountains in the mountains, the meteor, Himalayan landscape, four noon in Himalayas, afternoon in Himalayas, evening in Himalayas and snow peaks glittered in the moonlight are not mere landscapes. They are the personification of the restless spirit of a seeker at last at peace with itself. It is significant that India came to know the Russian Realistic School of Art through Rerik. The Government of India brought out a one-rupee stamp in 1974 to commemorate the work done by Nikolai Rerik. Rerik's work is spread all over the world in private and public collections. But the joy of watching his works at the Rerik Museum at Nagar is an experience that has to be lived. The works seem to acquire an immediacy, a new vibrancy surrounded as they are by the very peaks and valleys that inspire these classics. Nagar is today a major attraction for tourists from all over the world. And it is here that Rerik's legacy continues to inspire future generations of artists. Every person is once in his life. He knocks on the heart of a person, and a person must hear his knock. And the main thing is to trust him, to respond and to follow him. Sometimes the singer knocks on the heart of a whole people. Then the revolution takes place, the war takes place. It is a collective image of the moment of the most important in life, which happens only once. The rich exuberant colours of Rerik endow the mountains with a transparency that is disturbing and haunting. Few have been able to reflect the varying moves, the changing patterns of light and shade, and the subtle transformations occasioned by the seasons as successfully as Rerik. If you like the autonomous developments in what he is looking at, his mountains no longer represent merely outcrops of Russian mountains or whatever. His mountains have a character of their own which is Indian. You look at his mountain studies. They're very closely related to, you know, Indian poetry, Indian ways of looking at things. So you find that the artist now has begun to respect the areas that were before merely unusual for their own wisdom. What was it called in India? In this institute, they studied botanical, ornithology, even cosmic rays, there was a complex equipment there, and geology, that is, the most different types of science and art. And the locals studied folklore. They lived in the UNISON from India for 20 years, 20 years together with India. I love India just as much as I love Russia. And Svyatoslav then, after that, he lived for 40 more years, and brought the idea of a father, the idea of a mother, and a brother, to make India understand Russia, and to make India understand Russia well. The significance of the depiction of India and its people in the works of Saltikov, and Rerek, is not merely because these were some of the earliest positive depictions of India by European artists, but in the fact that all three reflected the Indian people's desire for freedom. Their individual efforts initiated a glorious era of people-to-people relationship between the two nations, which subsequently permeated the entire spectrum of cooperation between these two great civilizations. The cooperation is phenomenal, not only in terms of scale, but also for its depth and honesty of purpose. The lasting bonds of friendship between India and Russia were initiated not through war or diplomacy, but through the sensitive strokes of artists. And that is why these bonds are so deep and so dear.