Maitreyi Devi Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Maitreyi Devi

• Maitreyi’s interest in literature developed due to her father, who loved reading and writing.

• She was a student of Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote a preface to her first poetry book, ‘Udarata’ (1930). She was then 16 years old.
  

  Maitreyi Devi with Rabindranath Tagore

• Tagore stayed at her house in Mungpu, near Kalimpong, where he wrote his famous poem ‘Janamdin.’ Maitreyi recorded his stay in a memoir titled ‘Mongpute Rabindranath’ (1961). This house has now been converted into a museum, known as the Rabindra Bhavan. It was allotted to Maitreyi’s husband as part of his government job.
  

  Maitreyi Devi’s Mungpu house where Rabindranath Tagore stayed

• Maitreyi Devi’s fame rests upon her novel ‘Na Hanyate’ (It Does Not Die: A Romance). It was originally published in Bengali in 1974.
  

  Maitreyi Devi’s original book cover of ‘Na Hanyate’

• ‘Na Hanyate’ is a semi-autobiographical novel in response to her forlorn beloved, Mircea Eliade’s 1933 Romanian novel, ‘Maitreyi’ (Bengal Nights). Maitreyi encountered it in the ’70s, reading which she was unhappy. Therefore, she decided to write her side of the story.

• Mircea dedicated his novel, ‘Maitreyi’ to Maitreyi Devi, and she was informed about this from her father after 5 or 6 years of its publication. She got it read by a friend who knew Romanian, and after finding that Mircea described their past relationship as sexual, she wrote an anthology titled ‘Aditya Marichi’ (1972) as her first response.

• Maitreyi Devi and Mircea Eliade developed an affair when Mircea stayed at their home as a philosophy student of her father from 1929 to 1931. Maitreyi was then 16 years old while Mircea was 24 years old. Their affair ended because Maitreyi’s father didn’t approve of it, and asked Mircea to leave India and never contact Maitreyi again.

• Mircea and Maitreyi met again after 40 years when she went to deliver a lecture in Chicago at the same university where Mircea was a professor. This rekindled their affair, which is a debatable topic till today.
  

  Maitreyi Devi and Mircea Eliade in the 1970s at the University of Chicago

• Some Bengali media claimed that the 1999 Bollywood movie ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,’ starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Salman Khan was inspired by Maitreyi Devi’s ‘Na Hanyate.’

• Maitreyi took a promise from Mircea that his book ‘Maitreyi’ should not be published in English until she was alive. The book was published in 9 languages with ‘La Nuit Bengali,’ its French version, being the most famous. Its English version was published in 1933.
  

  The original cover of ‘Maitreyi’ (1933)

• The film ‘The Bengali Night’ (1988) is based on ‘La Nuit Bengali.’ In this film, the character of Maitreyi is portrayed by Supriya Pathak. Indian actors, Soumitra Chatterjee and Shabana Azmi are seen in the role of her parents.
  

  Supriya Pathak and Shabana Azmi in a still from ‘The Bengali Night’

• A court case was filed by Maitreyi Devi against the movie ‘The Bengali Night’s producer, Philippe Diaz, insisting that the name of the character Maitreyi should be changed to Gayatri. This caused a delay in its filming.

• She became a famous name in Romania for being the heroine of ‘La Nuit Bengali.’

• Maitreyi Devi had a beautiful voice. Her song ‘Madhukale El Holi’ was recorded in 1932. Its lyrics and music were composed by Atul Prasad Sen.

• She was a philanthropist at heart and established an organization for the orphans of refugee camps, named Khelaghar. She also established a Council for the Promotion of Communal Harmony (1964).

• She served as the Vice-President of the All-India Women’s Coordinating Council.

• Maitreyi enjoyed farming of cows, fish, sheep, and poultry.