Translation: Sofiya Perfilyeva, Edited by Visnu Murti das.

On Friday, January the 4th in 1891, Hindus who were bathing in the sacred river Yamuna witnessed an amazing scene. A ship with a name in an unknown language was approaching.

In the morning mist, a young light-skinned man in an officer’s jacket and surrounded by armed soldiers, but not looking belligerent, came ashore. The stranger was the crown prince Nicholas, who was to be the last Russian emperor when he died in the Revolution of 1917.

The small town of Vrindavan, 80 miles to the south of Delhi, was part of the journey of the crown prince, along with Mumbai, Delhi, Gwalior, Agra, Ellora, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kolkata and Мadras and Sri Rangam, up to the southern parts of the Indian subcontinent, from where he viewed the outline of Ceylon.