La via del Labirinto, Ricordi d’Oriente e d’Occident

First published in 1981 and in a new, expanded edition in 1993, these memoirs never cease to fascinate for their iconoclastic, nonconformist, “unactual” character. Born into a very religious Catholic family (his brother Jean was to become a theologian of great name and a prince of the Church), Alain Daniélou was soon befriended by some of the leading figures of the Parisian avant-garde of the 1920s, such as Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Maurice Sachs. Soon, however, he feels a longing for other horizons. He thus traveled to North Africa, the Middle East, China, Japan, the United States, and finally to India, where he felt he had found a new homeland. Here, from 1937, he devoted himself to the study of Sanskrit, philosophy and traditional music, of which he became a profound connoisseur and sensitive interpreter. Returning to Europe in the early 1960s, he devoted himself until his death to popularizing Indian art and culture, as well as to the study of pre-Christian archaic religions.