Georgy Gachev is a well-known Soviet literary critic and culturologist who has long been engaged in a comparative description of the national cultures of Eurasia and America. In a published book written in the genre of scientific and artistic prose, the author explores the images of India in ancient Greek (Strabo), Russian (Athanasius Nikitin), French (Montesquieu) and German (Fr. Schlegel) paintings of the world. Reflecting on the poem of the ancient Indian poet Ashvaghoshi (Asvagoshi) "Life of the Buddha," he compares the ideas and images of Buddhism with the corresponding Christian ideas.