Dominic Goodall

Dominic Goodall studies the history of the Śaiva religion, particularly the school known as the Śaivasiddhānta between the fifth and twelfth centuries CE, from Sanskrit sources, several of which he has edited or helped to edit (Kiraṇavṛtti, Parākhyatantra, Pañcāvaraṇastava, Tattvatrayanirṇayavivṛti, Prāyaścittasamuccaya).  Together with Harunaga Isaacson, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Hamburg, he recently directed a 3-year Franco-German project sponsored by the ANR and DFG entitled “Early Tantra: Discovering the Interrelationships and Common Ritual Syntax of the Śaiva, Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava and Saura traditions” (2008–2011).  Among the fruits of this project is the first edition, furnished with an annotated translation, of the oldest three books of what appears to be the earliest surviving Śaiva tantric scripture, the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā.

Another research interest is Sanskrit poetry (kāvya) and its transmission. Together with Harunaga Isaacson, he has published the first six chapters of the earliest surviving Sanskrit commentary, that of Vallabhadeva, on Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṃśa from Groningen.  They are currently preparing a second volume (of 3) to cover the next half dozen chapters. Together with Dr. Csaba Dezső (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest), he has recently published a fresh edition and English translation of the Kuṭṭanīmata, an eighth-century Sanskrit verse novel set in and around Benares and Patna in which the protagonists are courtesans and their clients.

Together with colleagues from the EPHE, he has been studying unpublished Cambodian Sanskrit inscriptions since 2004, a handful of which have now appeared in print.

Dominic Goodall
Dominic Goodall

Directeur d'études

Philologie sanskrite, histoire du śivaïsme, épigraphie


Centre de Pondichéry
19, rue Dumas,
Pondicherry 605001
Tel. +91 413 2334539


dominic.goodall@efeo.net