92. Letter sent by Mircea Eliade to his mother, about his time in India and the plan to establish a department of History and Philosophy of Religion in Bucharest, Calcutta, October 17, 1929, very rare collector's item (2 sheets)

Calcutta, October 17, 1929 Dear Mother, I received your letter of Sept. 20, which gave me great joy, because it had been four months since you had written to me. I am glad everything is fine at home. I hope that the room in Str. Bolintineanu will be unchanged. As for Corina's baccalaureate, I wrote to Nae, insistently, twice. I am waiting for the result. If she passes, it would be good for her to take the preparatory year at University, even if she would not take exams. A year or two of proper intellectual contact does not hurt. It is an opportunity to get to know the academic elite and, anyway, a world you will not find elsewhere. If she enrolls, I will ask a colleague I know to accompany her for the first few months of classes until she becomes familiar with university methods. If she fails the baccalaureate exam, then it is her own nervousness that is to blame. By the way, the night of Oct. 15-16 I had a terrible series of bad dreams. Something bad happen at home? I do not know if I have written to you that, thanks to Dasgupta, I have been appointed delegate of the Univ. of Calcutta, Research Scholar Department, to the Philosophical Congress in Lahore (Punjab), to be held at Christmas. My paper, in English, will be on a problem of Indian psychology. But as I am not paid for the journey, but only given luxurious accommodation in Lahore - I asked Nae to get some help. Big enough for me to leave for Jaipur in the Rajputana desert. No Romanian has yet had the honour of being part of such a congress. The communication will be published in the congress proceedings. Naturally, I owe it all to Dasgupta, who helps me with rare interest to become an authority in Europe. I repeat, it is my intention not to go back before I have published a few papers that will make me known in the West and with which I can always get a chair at a European university. That is the only way I will be able to persuade the rectorate in Bucharest to found a special department of History and Philosophy of Religions and to set up an "Oriental School" where I could teach Sanskrit and Pali. So, I ask you once again to be patient so that I can finish my studies successfully. I hope the currency is obtained next year as well. I still have not received the cheque for Sept-Oct, and this makes me anxious. Last week I spent five days in Puri (Orissa) for some sea baths. Almost every day I visit a village in Bengal to study the religious ceremonies of the goddess Durga, whose celebration is in full swing now. I collect materials for the study of popular Hinduism, so - taking advantage of the fact that the teacher is in Darjeeling - I go around the villages and neighbourhoods to learn. The Maharajah is temporarily in deep financial trouble. His state, Kasimbazar, was pledged by the British for debts (half a billion lei) made for charity and culture. The Maharajah is a unique man, he supports sixteen schools, a handful of temples, libraries, educational institutions, gives scholarships to students, helps actors and poets, etc. All this has ruined him. The other day I received a letter from him asking me to wait a few months for the Rs. 90 monthly pension until he settles the loans of 300.000.000 lei with an English company. Obviously, I am not losing this money, but I have to wait for it; so, the bank savings are now going to prepay the house and petty expenses. If I do not get the grant in another two weeks, the situation becomes critical. Time, now it is very unhealthy in Calcutta, it is the season of malaria and fever. Continental Europeans are all off to the climactic resorts and do not return until November 1st. In fact, I do the same, being in Calcutta only two days a week to read and answer letters. I will be settling in again in early November when Dasgupta returns. The rest of the time I spend at the sea or at Santiniketan. The last of the money goes into this vacation, but here it is not the money that matters, it is your health. Luckily for me, I befriended a doctor, an English Major from the Tropical Medicine Hospital, who gives me all the preventative medical advice. Here it is customary that the sick are not treated at home, but at the hospital, where they have special, clean rooms and are looked after very carefully. The Tropical Medicine Hospital is excellent, purely European, and I recently visited it with the Major. I read today in the diary the disturbances with the Regency. I do not think it is serious. Strikes and attacks are expected in India in January, but the government will quell them. A full-blown rebellion has no chance of success. Once again I ask Papa to make every effort to extend the scholarship and, above all, to send regular cheques. Here everything is changeable, money today, poor tomorrow. I ask Corina to send what is requested, the newspapers with my leaflets and some piano notes. Hugs [...] Thousand kisses for you, Mircea"

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