Volga se ganga

Sankrtyan wrote his first novel, "Jine Ke Liye" ( Rus. "For the sake of life" ), in 1938. In 1941-42, he was inspired by the stories of another Indian writer, Bhagawat Sharan Upadhyay ( Hindi उपाध्याय ). A little later, while in Hazaribag prison for participating in the Indian independence movement ^[1] , Sankrtyan wrote his cycle of 20 stories. They were first published in 1943 ^[2] and are now considered one of the greatest works in Hindi in modern Indian literature ^[1] .

The stories have been translated into many languages, including Bengali , Kannada , Tamil , Malayalam , Telugu , Punjabi , English , which were reprinted several times ^[1] . Now it is a classic of Indian literature.

In Russia

Currently there is no confirmed information that the stories have been translated and published in Russian. However, the library of the International Center of the Roerichs in its bulletin of new acquisitions ^[3] reported on the availability of the book by Rahula Sankrityayan entitled “From the Volga to the Ganges” of the publishing house “Society of Friendship and Cooperation with Foreign Countries” published in 2002. ISBN books not specified. Any other evidence that the book was published in Russian, no.

Volga Se Ganga is a series of stories about the history of Indo-European peoples, which were later called Aryans . 8,000 years and 10,000 kilometers are woven into 20 stories.

The first story, “Nisha” ( Rus. “Nisha” ), about a caveman living in the Caucasus (now South of Russia) in 6000 BC. The society (or its analogue of that time) was matriarchal, so the story is named after the head of the Nish family. And although all 20 stories are independent of each other, the sequence in which they are located is very important. Here you can find the gradual transformation of matriarchy (the first two stories) into patriarchy (the rest), the gradual transition from freedom to slavery, from accepting slavery to its hatred. If you believe Sankrtiayan , then there is nothing new in fear for technical progress. People have always feared better weapons, which quickly replaced the old. See the fourth story - “Puruhoot” (Tajikistan, 2500 BC). The same story tells how the arms race was started at that time, and how Southerners accumulated enormous wealth at the expense of the Northerners.

The sixth story, “Angira” ( Taxila , 1800 BC), is about a person who wants to save the Aryans from losing their identity by teaching them true culture (the predecessor of the Vedic rish ).

Eighth story, Pravahan ( Panchala , 700 BC), about how the aristocracy manipulated religion for its own selfish interests, and about conspiring to keep people in ignorance for at least 2,000 more years.

The tenth story, Nagdatt, tells us about a classmate of the philosopher Chanakya , who travels around Persia and Greece and studies the circumstances of the fall of Athens before Macedonia. The reader can observe how often Indians and Greeks mingled with each other during the times of Alexander the Great and Chanakya .

The eleventh story, “Prabha” (50 AD) is about the famous first Indian playwright Ashwaghosha , who adapted the art of Greek drama in Indian culture in a very beautiful and authentic form, and about his inspiration. “Baba Noordeen” (1300) is the 15th story, it is about the rise of Sufism . The seventeenth story "Rekha Bhagat" (1800) about the barbaric power of the East India Company and the anarchy that it brought to some parts of India.

The last story, “Sumer” (1942), about a man who goes to fight with the Japanese, because he wants the triumph of the USSR . He believes that this nation is the only hope for all mankind.

Rahul Sankrityan was fascinated by the ideas of Marxism . This passion is strongly felt in the last three stories. Mangal Singh, the main character in the 18th story, personally knows Marx and Engels and sometimes wonders how Marx knows so much about India. Mangal Singh explains to his beloved Anne that science is necessary for India, but to his regret, Indians put faith above science. As a result, in accordance with his convictions, in 1857 he went to war with the British .

The author (his real name Kedarnath Pandey) was so strongly influenced by Buddhism that he adopted for himself a new name Rahul (the name of the son of Gautama Buddha ). This influence is also felt in his stories “Bandhul Mall” (490 BC. E., 9th story) and “Prabha” (50 AD, 11th story). Another characteristic that deserves attention is the simplicity of the language. In his works there are no meaningless linguistic ornaments. The author instantly gets to the point, just like Voltaire in Optimism .