Iz peshcher i debrei Indostana: pis'ma na rodinu) 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.

[5] "Especially she is being occupied a mysterious sect of raj-yogis, the holy sages, who, through the special exertion of their spiritual forces, something like a long spiritual gymnastics, reach the ability to perform undoubted miracles: so, Blavatsky's personally acquaintance raj-yogi Gulab-Singh[note 4][note 5] had been answering the questions which Blavatsky was demanding only mentally, had been disappearing and appearing completely unexpectedly for everyone, had been opening to them in the mountains the mysterious entrances through which they were entering the marvelous underground temples, etc.

The book gives also an objective assessment of the English colonial rule, all the more important because it contains the condemnation of the Englishmen living in India, despite the "truthful, depressing descriptions of atrocities" against them by the participants the Sepoy uprising (1857–1859).

[14] According to Senkevich, Blavatsky expresses her indignation at the English colonial orders, contempt for the pleasures and amusements of the British officials and the Anglo-Indians, who served them, "in a sarcastic and vitriolic manner," and the reader, empathizing with her "violent emotions, willy-nilly takes her side."

The Russian editors, though they did their best to transfer faithfully the Indian names and places, "often produced, through their ignorance of Oriental tongues, forms which are strange, and sometimes unrecognizable.

"[18]Solovyov noted that Blavatsky was in her lifetime very troubled that the English should not know contents of the book, "as she wrote for Russian readers, and was not sparing of ridicule and censure against the Anglo-Indian Government and its representatives.

"[20] Murphet wrote that Blavatsky's work is "a highly imaginative concoction of fact-and-fiction, written in a style that established her literary reputation with Russian editors.