Dans l'Inde (de Ceylan au Népal) by Désirée Sylvain-Lévi
QR code
"Dans l'Inde (de Ceylan au Népal)" by Désirée Sylvain-Lévi is a travelogue written in the early 20th century. It traces a journey from Ceylon through India toward Nepal, blending vivid travel impressions with keen observations of religion, art, education, and the colonial politics of the Non-Cooperation era, especially around Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan. The focus is on landscapes, temples, daily life, and encounters with scholars, monks, artists, and reformers seen by a perceptive
French traveler accompanying a Sanskritist. The opening of the book follows the narrator’s arrival in Ceylon, quick impressions of Colombo and Kandy, and a move to southern India where the living temples of Madura overwhelm her imagination. She then reaches Calcutta and, above all, Santiniketan, where Tagore greets them with songs, sandal paste, and garlands, and classes meet under trees. Settling into simple quarters, she teaches French while her companion gives Sanskrit and Buddhist lectures; they meet Buddhist monks from Ceylon, sympathetic English residents, and the Tagore family circle, and observe village life and Santal customs. Practical details—servants, food, insects, heat—and moonlit ceremonies mingle with sharp sketches of people and places. As hartals and boycotts rise around the Prince of Wales’s visit, she sketches the tension between Gandhi’s ascetic program and Tagore’s humanist internationalism, a brief sojourn in Calcutta society, and a return for Santiniketan’s fair and the inauguration of its international university. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Download for free
For your e-reader or reading app — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Calibre etc.
Kindle → Use Send-to-Kindle
Kobo, Nook etc. → Transfer via USB
Phone, tablet or computer → Open in a reading app
Other formats & older devices
There may be more files related to this item.
About this eBook
| Author | Sylvain-Lévi, Désirée, 1867-1943 |
|---|---|
| Title | Dans l'Inde (de Ceylan au Népal) |
| Original Publication | Paris: F. Rieder et Cie, 1925. |
| Credits | Laurent Vogel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | French |
| LoC Class | DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia |
| Subject | India -- Description and travel |
| Subject | Asia -- Description and travel |
| Subject | Sylvain-Lévi, Désirée, 1867-1943 -- Diaries |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77993 |
| Release Date | Feb 21, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 223 downloads in the last 30 days. |
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!