THE DURBAR IN LAHORE FROM THE DIARY OF A RUSSIAN
Bv H. P. BLAVATSKY [It was in November, 1880, that H. P. Blavatsky and Col. Henry S. Olcott went to Lahore to organize a local Branch of The Theosophical Society and discuss various metaphysical subjects with several distinguished scholars. - The Viceregal Durbar held by the Marquis of Ripon fell mi. November 15th, and was described by H.P.B. in her inimitable style, for the benefit of the Russian reading public, in the pages of the Russkiy Vestnik (Russian Messenger). The original Russian text was published in Volumes 153-54 of this periodical, in the issues for May, June and July,l881. Col. Olcott himself gives a brief description of these festivities in the Second Series of his Old Diary Leaves, pp. 259-65. It is of course most likely that he never actually read the Russian version, due to the fact of not being versed in the Russian language, unless H.P.B. translated for him passages from her story. As far as is known, " The Durbar in Lahore " has never been translated into any language until now. The present English translation is based on a rough MSS. translation made many years ago by Miss Inga Sjostedt. It has been compared word for word with the original Russian text, worked over by the present writer, and thoroughly gone over and polished up by Mrs. Irene R. Ponsonby, whose scholarly knowledge of the English language has been for many years of inestimable value in the final proof-reading and editing of the volumes of H.P.B.'s Collected Writings, now in process of publication. Every effort has been made to preserve in this translation, as much as possible, the flowing style of H .P.B. 's Russian original, her witticisms. and the many characteristic expressions with which her writings abound. Even to students thoroughly familiar with H.P.B.'s literary output, the present story will be entirely new.-BoRIS DE ZtRKOFF] 2