‘Newly Baptized Indians’ in Astrakhan Trade Colony. Part 2
The article deals with cases of baptism of Indian traders who lived on the Volga in Astrakhan city in the XVII-XVIII centuries. The main sources for analysis are the documents of the Astrakhan archive. In addition to archival documents, the research involves the notes of foreign and native travelers to Russia and India: Peter Simon Pallas, Johann Gottlieb Georgi, Jan Jansen Struys, Alfred Grandidier, A.N. Krasnov. The data of ancient Indian didactic literature are used as a comparative material. The study raises a number of questions that have not been considered until now either in the domestic or foreign research literature. The main issues analyzed in the article are as follows. How could one identify among the Indian merchants those who had been baptized? What kind of relationship was between the newly baptized and their fellow Hindus? What was the procedure of baptism for foreigners in Russia? What motives could induce a Hindu or a Muslim to change his religion? And ﬁnally, how could there be a further fate of an Indian, who changed his religion?