Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) was a Romanian-born historian of religion who did much to shape that discipline and make it an intellectual force in the twentieth century. Eliade graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1928 and then in 1928–1931 studied Indian philosophy at the University of Calcutta and yoga at an ashram in Rishikesh. Returning to Romania, he earned his Ph.D. in 1933 with a dissertation on yoga which, after later revisions and translations, became his Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (1958). Eliade joined the faculty of the University of Bucharest in 1933, where he taught history of religion and Indian philosophy, as well as becoming a widely-read author of fiction and journalistic commentary in the 1930s, something being spoken of as a major voice of the younger generation of Romanians.
In those troubled times for Romania and Europe, toward the end of the decade, Eliade became involved in the rightist politics of the fascist Iron Guard movement; when the King, Carol II,...
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Bibliography
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Ellwood, R.S. (2014). Eliade, Mircea. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_200
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