From the History of Indian Studies in Russia: Gerasim Lebedev and the Freemasons

Authors

• Yaroslav Vassilkov

Abstract

Gerasim Lebedev (1749–1817) was the first Russian and probably the first European to go to India with the specific intent to study its religion — “ancient wisdom”, which he interpreted as the original “primeval Christianity”. The unorthodoxy of this approach may be explained through Lebedev’s obvious association with Freemasonry.