THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There’s something about travellers’ tales that history books with their penchant for facts and figures lack. Perhaps it’s the outsider’s eye for the fantastic and the strange. Or perhaps it’s that aura of leisurely romanticism that well-told travel stories are imbued with.
Prince Alexei Dimitrievich Saltykov’s account of his brief stay in Travancore offers such a perspective on the people and objects that crossed his path. The Russian Cultural Centre in Thiruvananthapuram recently held a workshop on ‘Prince Saltykov’s Journeys Across India,’ a work published by the Russian Embassy in India in collaboration with the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Saltykov, a scion of the Russian aristocracy whose love for travel and art took him across continents, visited Travancore in 1841. He reached Travancore ‘’partly by palanquin and partly by water; I did a total of 50 miles.’’ Here he found tigers and leopards at the court and a ‘Rajah’ who spoke English and who, ‘’in conversation differed in no way from Europeans.’’ The Russian prince found the Travancore Rajah (He doesn’t give a name, but Swati Thirunal Rama Varma was king at the time) a polite man.
In his account, which is in the form of letters, Saltykov waxes eloquent about the attire of the king: ‘’He received me, on his throne, in white muslin clothes, embroidered with gold sequins; on his turban, adorned with precious stones, fluttered a bunch of feathers; on the whole and in his appearance and dress he looked a bit like our merchants. The Rajah speaks English, is extremely polite but speaking with me he was unusually embarrassed and seemed to be shy.’’
Saltykov writes that he was presented with portraits of the king and his family, painted by an Austrian artist who was passing through. Saltykov himself, was sent elephants of which he made several sketches. The king’s brother wanted to treat him to a ‘theatrical performance and dance’ (Kathakali) on tales from the Ramayana. He was shown the clothes that the artistes wore during the performance. ‘’In my life I’ve never seen anything so absurd and funny as this fantastic wardrobe,’’ he writes. But he also expresses the hope that some day he would get to watch this fabulous tale of Rama and ‘’his monkeys’’ and their adventure to ‘Ceylon.’
‘’The prince wrote his accounts in French, as was the fashion with the Russian aristocracy in those days. He travelled extensively across the sub-continent and wrote about his travels which is related in ‘Prince Saltykov’s Journeys Across India’,’’ says Ratheesh C Nair, Russia’s honorary consul in Thiruvananthapuram.
Prince Saltykov was born in 1806 to one of the oldest aristocratic families in Russia. Later in life, he was appointed to the Board of Foreign Affairs which offered him a chance to serve in Greece, the Ottoman Empire, in Britain, Rome, Florence and in Teheran. An immensely rich man, he resigned in 1840 and gave himself up to his twin passions - travel and art.
In the southern tip of India, he found many things strange, and he writes that ‘’I will never forget the affectionate reception accorded me in Travancore.’’