Editing Mircea Eliade (section)

===University studies and Indian sojourn===

Between 1925 and 1928, he attended the [[University of Bucharest]]'s Faculty of Philosophy and Letters in 1928, earning his diploma with a study on Early Modern Italian philosopher [[Tommaso Campanella]].<ref name="Biografie in Handoca"/> In 1927, Eliade traveled to Italy, where he met Papini<ref name="Biografie in Handoca"/> and collaborated with the scholar [[Giuseppe Tucci]].

It was during his student years that Eliade met [[Nae Ionescu]], who lectured in [[Logic]], becoming one of his disciples and friends.<ref name="smihai"/><ref name="vilasanjpaseo"/><ref>Călinescu, pp. 954, 955; Nastasă, p. 76</ref> He was especially attracted to Ionescu's radical ideas and his interest in religion, which signified a break with the [[Rationalism|rationalist]] tradition represented by senior academics such as [[Constantin Rădulescu-Motru]], [[Dimitrie Gusti]], and [[Tudor Vianu]] (all of whom owed inspiration to the defunct literary society ''[[Junimea]]'', albeit in varying degrees).<ref name="smihai"/>

Eliade's scholarly works began after a long period of study in [[British India]], at the [[University of Calcutta]]. Finding that the [[Maharaja]] of [[Kassimbazar]] sponsored European scholars to study in India, Eliade applied and was granted an allowance for four years, which was later doubled by a Romanian scholarship.<ref name="Nastasă, p.237">Nastasă, p. 237</ref> In autumn 1928, he sailed for [[Calcutta]] to study [[Sanskrit]] and philosophy under [[Surendranath Dasgupta]], a [[Bengal]]i [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge alumnus]] and professor at Calcutta University, the author of a five volume ''History of Indian Philosophy''. Before reaching the [[Indian subcontinent]], Eliade also made a brief visit to [[Egypt]].<ref name="Biografie in Handoca"/> Once in India, he visited large areas of the region, and spent a short period at a [[Himalaya]]n ''[[ashram]]''.<ref>McGuire, p. 150; Nastasă, p. 237</ref>

He studied the basics of [[Indian philosophy]], and, in parallel, learned Sanskrit, [[Pali]] and [[Bengali language|Bengali]] under Dasgupta's direction.<ref name="Nastasă, p.237"/> At the time, he also became interested in the actions of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and the ''[[Satyagraha]]'' as a phenomenon; later, Eliade adapted Gandhian ideas in his discourse on spirituality and Romania.

In 1930, while living with Dasgupta, Eliade fell in love with his host's daughter, [[Maitreyi Devi]], later writing a barely disguised autobiographical novel ''[[Bengal Nights (novel)|Maitreyi]]'' (also known as "La Nuit Bengali" or "Bengal Nights"), in which he claimed that he carried on a physical relationship with her.<ref name="kamani">Ginu Kamani, [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/143651.html "A Terrible Hurt: The Untold Story behind the Publishing of Maitreyi Devi"], at the University of Chicago Press website; retrieved July 16, 2007</ref>

Eliade received his PhD in 1933, with a thesis on [[Yoga]] practices.<ref name="smihai"/><ref name="vilasanjpaseo"/><ref>''Biografie'', in Handoca; Nastasă, p. 237</ref><ref name="ribas">Albert Ribas, "Mircea Eliade, historiador de las religiones" ("Mircea Eliade, Historian of Religions"), in ''El Ciervo. Revista de pensamiento y cultura'', Año 49, Núm. 588 (Marzo 2000), pp. 35–38</ref> The book, which was translated into French three years later,<ref name="Nastasă, p.237"/> had significant impact in academia, both in Romania and abroad.<ref name="vilasanjpaseo"/>

He later recalled that the book was an early step for understanding not just Indian religious practices, but also Romanian spirituality.<ref>Eliade, in Nastasă, p. 238</ref> During the same period, Eliade began a correspondence with the [[Sri Lanka|Ceylonese]]-born philosopher [[Ananda Coomaraswamy]].<ref name="McGuire, p.150">McGuire, p. 150</ref> In 1936–1937, he functioned as honorary assistant for Ionescu's course, lecturing in [[Metaphysics]].<ref>Nastasă, p. 442; Ornea, p. 452</ref>

In 1933, Mircea Eliade had a physical relationship with the actress Sorana Țopa, while falling in love with Nina Mareș, whom he ultimately married.<ref name="scnostal"/><ref name="vilasanjpaseo"/><ref name="pcommare">[[Paul Cernat]], [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/informatiiarticol.phtml?xid=16282&print=true "Jurnalul unui om mare" ("The Diary of A Big Man")] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603012848/http://www.observatorcultural.ro/informatiiarticol.phtml?xid=16282&print=true |date=June 3, 2015 }}, in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 338, September 2006; retrieved January 23, 2008 {{in lang|ro}}</ref> The latter, introduced to him by his new friend [[Mihail Sebastian]], already had a daughter, Giza, from a man who had divorced her.<ref name="vilasanjpaseo"/> Eliade subsequently adopted Giza,<ref name="Şora, Handoca">Șora, in Handoca</ref> and the three of them moved to an apartment at 141 [[Dacia Boulevard]].<ref name="vilasanjpaseo"/> He left his residence in 1936, during a trip he made to the United Kingdom and Germany, when he first visited London, [[Oxford]] and [[Berlin]].<ref name="Biografie in Handoca"/>