Abstract

This article presents a document dated from the 1730s and housed at the Indian Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which contains a translation of the Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster) into Multani (Saraiki). The document is addressed to Anna Ioannovna, hence its dating to the time of that empress’s reign. The authors of the article managed to establish that the document had been compiled by the outstanding explorer of Siberia D.G. Messerschmidt, while the translation of the prayer into Multani had been made for him by one of the Astrakhan Indians, a certain Sung(h)ara (Petr Ivanov after baptism). Among D.G. Messerschmidt’s documents housed at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a series of drafts were found, testifying to his work on this manuscript. It can be assumed that, by means of this document, both Messerschmidt and Sung(h)ara tried to attract the attention of the Empress and enlist her support, each pursuing his own goals.

About the authors

Alexander V. Zorin

Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS

Email: kawi@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7180-1804

Сand. Sci. (Philology), Senior Researcher of the Department of Manuscripts and Documents

Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

Vladimir P. Ivanov

Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: lokeshvara@inbox.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6293-2837

Cand. Sci. (Philology) Senior Researcher of the Department of the Central Asian and South Asian Studies

Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

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