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{{Style P-Title|Letter X<ref>''Moscow News'', № 28, 29.01.1880, pp. 4-5; ''Russian Herald'', January 1883, Supplement, vol 163, pp.&nbsp;96-108. In V. Johnston edition here starts the chapter “Vanished Glories”.</ref>.}}

{{Style P-Title|Letter X<ref>''Moscow News'', № 28, 29.01.1880, pp. 4-5; ''Russian Herald'', January 1883, Supplement, vol 163, pp.&nbsp;96-108. In V. Johnston edition here starts the chapter “Vanished Glories”.</ref>}}

Benares<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi Varanasi] (Uttar Pradesh state) since 1947. It is a central place in pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world – Ed.</ref>, Prayaga (now Allahabad<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad Prayagraj] since October 2018. – Ed.</ref>), Nashik, Haridwar, Badrinath<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badrinath Badrinath] (Chamoli district, Uttarakhand state) is a Hindu holy town. It is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage, other three are: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarka Dwarka], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rameswaram Rameswaram], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puri Puri]. – Ed.</ref>, Matura<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathura Mathura] (Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh state) is a birthplace of Krishna and is one of the Sapta Puri ("seven cities"), which are the seven holy pilgrimage centres in India, which bless the pilgrims with ''moksha'' (liberation from the cycle of birth and death). – Ed.</ref> – these were the sacred places of prehistoric India which we were to visit one after the other; but to visit them, not after the usual manner of tourists, ''a vol d'oiseau<ref>Bird's eye view (Fr.). – Ed.</ref>'', with a cheap ''guide-book'' in our hands and a cicerone to weary our brains, and wear out our legs. We were well aware that all these ancient places are thronged with traditions and overgrown with the weeds of popular fancy, like ruins of ancient castles covered with ivy; that the original shape of the building is destroyed by the cold embrace of these parasitic plants, and that it is as difficult for the archaeologist to form an idea of the architecture of the once perfect edifice, judging only by the heaps of disfigured rubbish that cover the country, as for us to select from out the thick mass of legends good wheat from weeds. No guides and no cicerone could be of any use whatever to us. The only thing they could do would be to point out to us places where once there stood a fortress, a castle, a temple, a sacred grove, or a celebrated town, and then to repeat legends which came into existence only lately, under the Mussulman rule. As to the undisguised truth, the original history of every interesting spot, we should have had to search for these by ourselves, assisted only by our own conjectures.

Benares<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi Varanasi] (Uttar Pradesh state) since 1947. It is a central place in pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world – Ed.</ref>, Prayaga (now Allahabad<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad Prayagraj] since October 2018. – Ed.</ref>), Nashik, Haridwar, Badrinath<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badrinath Badrinath] (Chamoli district, Uttarakhand state) is a Hindu holy town. It is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage, other three are: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarka Dwarka], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rameswaram Rameswaram], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puri Puri]. – Ed.</ref>, Matura<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathura Mathura] (Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh state) is a birthplace of Krishna and is one of the Sapta Puri ("seven cities"), which are the seven holy pilgrimage centres in India, which bless the pilgrims with ''moksha'' (liberation from the cycle of birth and death). – Ed.</ref> – these were the sacred places of prehistoric India which we were to visit one after the other; but to visit them, not after the usual manner of tourists, ''a vol d'oiseau<ref>Bird's eye view (Fr.). – Ed.</ref>'', with a cheap ''guide-book'' in our hands and a cicerone to weary our brains, and wear out our legs. We were well aware that all these ancient places are thronged with traditions and overgrown with the weeds of popular fancy, like ruins of ancient castles covered with ivy; that the original shape of the building is destroyed by the cold embrace of these parasitic plants, and that it is as difficult for the archaeologist to form an idea of the architecture of the once perfect edifice, judging only by the heaps of disfigured rubbish that cover the country, as for us to select from out the thick mass of legends good wheat from weeds. No guides and no cicerone could be of any use whatever to us. The only thing they could do would be to point out to us places where once there stood a fortress, a castle, a temple, a sacred grove, or a celebrated town, and then to repeat legends which came into existence only lately, under the Mussulman rule. As to the undisguised truth, the original history of every interesting spot, we should have had to search for these by ourselves, assisted only by our own conjectures.