The Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. Blavatsky - is a literary work by the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Blavatsky.[note 1] She published it under the pen name Radda Bai in serial installments (letters) from 1879 to 1886 in Moscow in the periodicals Moskovskiya Vedomosti and Russkiy Vestnik, edited by Mikhail Katkov. The first part of these letters was published in a single volume in 1883 as an appendix to the journal Russkiy Vestnik. [note 2] The second part of the letters was published in 1884-1886. The series obviously was never finished as it broke off rather suddenly.The Russian literary critic Zinaida Vengerova noted that this Blavatsky's book has "somewhat a mystical coloring" due to numerous stories and the author's arguments about the secret wisdom of the Hindus, which does not detract from its literary significance. The close acquaintance of the writer with the Indian sights allows her to be very entertaining to talk about the "most diverse aspects of the life" in modern and ancient India. Simply, "but very artistically, " she describes the covering India from immemorial times magnificent buildings, on which the past millenniums had no influence.Senkevich wrote that these essays by Blavatsky had a "stunning success" in Russia. He stated that Blavatsky demonstrates in this work an enviable erudition and liveliness of the mind. In a sense, her book is a country-specific encyclopaedia, which and "to this day has not lost its scientific value."[note 7] The author's desire to disclose India "from within, " through people with whom she was throwed by her fate, gives the book, in comparison with the usual travel essays, a "special, completely new character of the psychological document reflecting many facets of the Indian spiritual world, the specificity of the life of traditional Indian society."