Arion Roșu (1924-2007)

arion roșu (1924-2007) One of the best-known Romanian specialists in Indian studies

Indian and Oriental studies have had a number of remarkable representatives in Romania as well. The first was Mircea Eliade, born in 1907, a reputed writer and historian of religions, who had a vast scientific and didactic career in the West. The following generation of experts in Indian studies included Sergiu Al-George, Anton Zigmund-Cerbu, Eliza Zigmund-Cerbu, Marcel Leibovici and Arion Roșu, the four latter being members of the Bucharest-based Jewish community.



Arion Roșu was born February 1, 1924 in Bucharest, and passed away on April 4, 2007 in Versailles, France, at the age of 83. He studied classical philology at University of Bucharest, and specialized in Indian studies, in Ayurveda and the history of classical Indian medicine. In 1964, he moved to France, where he continued his studies at La Sorbonne and defended his doctoral thesis about the psychological concepts in Indian medical literature. He published extensive scientific papers and volumes about India and classical Indian culture.



The Institute for the History of Religions of the Romanian Academy paid homage to Arion Roșu by naming a study after him. Indian specialist Eugen Ciurtin, the director of the Institute, knew Arion Roșu, and was actually his student. Ciurtin says Roșu was an accomplished scholar, his works being representative not just for Romania.



"Arion Roșu is not a parochial figure, representing a single place, he was a European scholar, to say the least. For instance, Professor David Gordon-White, who teaches history of religions at University of California, studied with two world authors who guided his career. One was published for the first time in the USA, a certain Mircea Eliade, whereas the other was first published in Europe, Arion Roșu. The fact that they happen to be Romanian is just our manner of understanding the evolution of Indian studies, of humanistic culture, at the end of the 20th century. Arion Roșu is a personality whose works displayed extraordinary durability. He is the only Romanian-born specialist in Indian and Oriental studies who, at the time of his death, was given the unique honor of having an obituary signed by Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat in "Journal Asiatique", the oldest periodical of Oriental studies in Europe, which has been published in the last two centuries without interruption".



Ayurveda or Indian classical medicine has always fascinated people across time and space. It also enthralled Arion Roșu. Eugen Ciurtin told us more:



"Arion Roșu distinguished himself as a historian of religions, particularly of Indian studies, with a special focus on classical Sanskrit medical literature. Why is this so important? Because of all the ancient cultures, only a few have an original medical system. In other words, there are only a few civilizations, including those of Egypt, China, India or Greece, that first looked at the human body with all its wonders and diseases. Devoting yourself to classical Ayurveda meant reconstructing the science and philosophy of ancient Indian culture".



All Romanian Orientalists were influenced by Mircea Eliade, who was a beacon for young Romanians who wanted to discover the secrets of India. Among them were a few Jewish students who were forced to explain their Fascist options to their teacher. We asked Eugen Ciurtin how Arion Roșu reacted to Eliade's biography:



"I talked to Arion Roșu on a number of occasions in Versailles, where he settled after turning 70, and I took it upon myself to tell him that in 1996 the extraordinary and painful "Journal" of Mihail Sebastian had been published. Then, he would select and cut out articles from major French publications and had them sent to me. The articles discussed the rightist formation of Mircea Eliade, who had been influenced by Monsignor Vladimir Ghyka, who helped him convert to Catholicism in the wake of the Romanian communist authorities' anti-Jewish drive. He found it hard to understand how someone so gifted and kind as Mircea Eliade would end up a captive of European far-right ideology for such a long time. There are documents in which Arion Roșu condemns this situation. But because he felt his destiny was bound to Eliade's, because he always admired his amazing intellect that helped him conquer the whole planet, Arion Roșu wanted to be fair and share the science. At the same time, he would be very harsh when some of his colleagues failed to grasp their predicament".


Arion Roșu is an iconic representative of Indian studies at global level, whose emblematic contributions are used in specialised academic circles. And this makes him a product of world literature. (VP) 



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Publicat: 2022-05-01 14:00:00
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