About Pattrika
This newsletter, conceived to give a glimpse of the many and varied projects conducted by the French research centres in India, circulated for several years as a "dead-tree" newsletter, then as a large PDF file. After a pause for
reflection in 2016, we have decided to relaunch it in a more convenient online format as a biannual newsletter. This issue covers the first half of 2017, with one or two allusions to significant events from just before or after
this period. Click here for previous issues
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IFP: ifpinfo{at}ifpindia{dot}org
EFEO: administration{at}efeo-pondicherry{dot}org
CSH: communication{at}csh-delhi{dot}com |
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Editorial
Along with photographs, inked estampages of inscriptions, and more than a thousand plans and architectural drawings of historic South Indian buildings, the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO, houses 1634 palm-leaf manuscripts of works in
Sankrit, in Tamil and in Manipravâlam (literally “rubies and coral”, a macaronic blend of Sanskrit vocabulary and Tamil syntax). The EFEO’s collection are thus much smaller than those of the IFP (more than
8600 palm-leaf bundles), and it its manuscripts transmit primarily Vaiṣṇava works.
In order to house these archives, the inauguration of a new annex in the courtyard of 19, Dumas Street, in the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO took place on 31st July 2017.
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Focus
 Following its legacy of forestry and biodiversity research in the biodiversity hotspot of Western Ghats for the last five decades,
IFP has in the past few years forayed into the other biodiversity hotspot of India, the Eastern Himalayas. IFP is part of the three member core group which provides the leadership for the India Biodiversity Portal - 'IBP' [1],
an open access, participatory biodiversity information system which aims to document Indian biodiversity to help better conservation, research and education. Inspired by the IBP experience, IFP is currently
leading an effort to establish an exclusive biodiversity information system for the State of Assam in partnership with Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment and Strand Life Foundation, who form the IBP core group.
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Research
 The temple occupies a pre-eminent position in Indian culture. Beginning from its plan, construction, the various rites
of installation, worship, and festivals, all are governed by the texts of authority, generally called Agamas, which are considered by tradition to have been revealed to different divine personages by Siva. This corpus of Agamas is
voluminous and the IFP, since its foundation, along with the EFEO, have been critically editing some of these hitherto unpublished texts as part of its major research programme, based on the IFP’s valuable collection of palm-leaf manuscripts.
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Events
 From November 2017 to February 2018, the Bonjour India platform will be in full swing in more than twenty Indian cities. Our three institutions will not be left behind. The CSH will organize urban walks and events on sanitation, while a manuscript from
the EFEO-IFP collection will be on display. IFP is particularly responsible for the organization of events focusing on water: symposia on water availability (Bangalore, 20-21 November) and on mangroves (Kolkata, 19-20 January), debates on the concept of
Anthropocene (Pondicherry, Delhi). Its now traditional Winter School in Social Sciences will also focus on water (4-8 December), in collaboration with the Lycée Français de Pondichéry.
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Welcome
Dr. Hélène GUETAT-BERNARD,
Research fellow from the University of Toulouse (UMR LISST-Dynamiques Rurales), Professor of Sociology from the French Ministry of Agriculture, joined the Social Sciences Department of IFP on september 2017, to be head of the Department
and conduct research on the topic of "Gender, Agroecology and Environmental Justice".
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Goodbye
Dr. Aurélie VARREL, researcher in geography, who had been deputed from September 15, 2014 to the Social Sciences Department of the IFP by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, left on August 31, 2017.
Ms. Varrel’s research theme focuses on the impact of the information technology boom in South Indian metros (Bangalore and Chennai especially). She will be replaced in her position by Dr. Nicolas Bautès.
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Congrats
 Dr. V. Prakash, post-doctoral scholar working in the Contemporary Tamil Culture
program at the IFP, received the "Presidential Award for Classical Tamil" for the year 2015-2016 in the category "Young Scholar Award" from the hands of the President of India
Shri. Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on 9th May 2017.
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Publications
 The Avacchedakatānirukti (of the Dīdhiti and Gādādharī)
with the Subodhā commentary by N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya Associate Editor S. Lakshminarasimham,RSAS no 8/ Vyākhyānamālā no 2. SCSVMV University Publication Series no 38, Institut Français de Pondichéry / Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram, 2017, vi, 290 p.
Language: Sanskrit. 650 Rs (28 €). ISBN: 978-81-8470-210-1.
The Avacchedakatānirukti, a supplement by Gadādhara Bhaṭṭācārya (circa 1604–1709) to the commentary Dīdhiti on the Tattva Cintāmaṇi written by the great philosopher Raghunātha Śiromaṇi (circa 1477–1547)
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Miscellaneous
The French Institute of Pondicherry is conducting a mega sale of some of its old publications with discounts ranging from 50% to 80%. These discounts will be applicable only on select publications (see links to the lists below), for a
limited period, i.e. 16th October to 15th November 2017, and till stocks last. The IFP/EFEO co-publications will be available both from the IFP and EFEO.
The consolidated list can be downloaded at: Consolidated list
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