Indology

Indian Society, History and Culture: Sources and Resources

The Department of Indology deals with the study of Indian civilization in its various aspects, both ancient and modern, on the basis of different kinds of sources (textual, iconographic, material…). The analysis of the very rich corpus of available texts in Sanskrit, the scholarly language of India, has traditionally formed the basis/cornerstone of the research work conducted at the IFP.

A unique character of the IFP has been that of a place where Western and Indian intellectual traditions, represented by Western researchers and Indian traditional scholars (pandits), meet and interact.

Another important originality of the department lies in the richness of its collection of manuscripts and photographs : the manuscript collection is the largest in the world of manuscripts of the Saiva Siddhanta, a Hindu religious tradition which has flourished in South India since more than ten centuries (10,000 bundles, recently classified as “Memory of the World” by UNESCO), and the most important available collection of photographs (130000) on the religious art and architecture of South India.

The research projects of the department may be grouped into three major axes

1.1. Indian analyses of Sanskrit language and literature

This research axis addresses the need to understand, from within, the concepts in Sanskrit language and literature developed by Indian thinkers and philosophers over the centuries. A close cooperation between Indian scholars and Western researchers (possible at the IFP) is indeed necessary for the study of texts and their commentaries and for the detailed analysis of the complexities of Paninian grammars and of the Indian philosophies of language.

1.2. History of religions

The second axis deals with the sources of the history of Shaivism, the most important religious tradition of Hinduism in South India, which grants preeminence to god Shiva. It uses extensively the unique collections of the IFP. Work is undertaken in two complementary directions: on the one hand, the cataloguing and digitization of the manuscripts and photographs, and on the other, edition and analysis of texts and highlighting of the photo collection.

As a vital tool for the identification of texts and quotations, both while cataloguing and while preparing critical editions, we have been putting together a library of Sanskrit electronic texts, particularly Shaiva ones, some of which may now be downloaded from our site.

In the global framework of this axis, a study is also being conducted on the origins of Brahmanical culture.

1.3 Tamil Studies

Given the favourable geographical location of the IFP in the heart of the Tamil country, the Department of Indology endeavours to study Tamil history and culture in all its diversity : historical geography of South India from the origins upto 1600 AD, classical Tamil Saiva hymns, as part of the oldest and most prestigious literature in India alongside Sanskrit and contemporary Tamil culture.

For more information, please consult the more detailed presentation of the research underway at the Department of Indology of the IFP.