Collection Indologie

Over 36 000 books, 110 current journals. Collection that is among the richest in South India in the domains of Indian literature and grammar (primarily Sanskrit and Tamil), sastra-s (traditional disciplines, including philosophy) and religion, art, archaeology and epigraphy, astrology and traditional medicine etc.

The art and architecture collection includes books on temple art, architecture and iconography, particularly of South India, as well as reports and memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India. It complements the photo collection of the French Institute of Pondicherry.

The library has also several books on Tantra and Saivasiddhanta that complement the manuscript collection as well as descriptive catalogues of manuscripts of other libraries. In addition many important Indological series form part of the collection, such as the Adyar Library series, Gaekwad Oriental series, Trivandrum Sanskrit series, Kashi Sanskrit series etc.

In recent years the library has been enriching its collection of books and journals on contemporary Tamil. It has acquired the complete set of the journal Manikkoti (1933-1939) that pioneered modernity in Tamil literature as well as volumes of another rare journal Eluttu (1959-1971).

The Indological collection of the French Institute of Pondicherry is deemed to be the second largest French collection in the domain of Indology.