Archaeology of Bhakti
Bhāgavatamāhātmya, undated edition (Gaṇapatakṛṣṇājī Mudrālaya, Bombay)
ahaṃ bhaktir iti khyātā (...)
utpannā drāviḍe sāhaṃ vrddhiṃ karṇāṭake gatā
kvacit kvacin mahārāṣṭre gurjare jīrṇatāṃ gatā (...)
vrndāvanaṃ punaḥ prāpya navīneva surūpiṇī
jātāhāṃ yuvatī samyak preṣṭharūpā tu sāṃpratam
Bhāgavatamāhātmya I.44-49 (partim)
" [I am called Bhakti (...)]
I was born in Dravida,
grew mature in Karnataka,
Went here and there in Maharashtra,
then in Gujarat became old and worn (...)
But on reaching Brindavan I was renewed,
I became lovely once again,
So that now I go about as I ought:
a young woman of superb appearance."
Translation by John Stratton Hawley ("Seeing the Bhakti Movement," In Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia, ed. by Himanshu Prabha Ray, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 234).
The Archaeology of Bhakti
August 3rd - 14th 2015
The third workshop in the series The Archaeology of Bhakti, coorganised by Valérie Gillet (EFEO, Pondicherry), Charlotte Schmid (EFEO, Paris) and E. Francis (CEIAS, EHESS & CNRS, Paris) will take place at the centre of the EFEO in Pondicherry from the 3rd to 14th August 2015.
This year's theme is "The Bhakti of Minor Dynasties". The call for contributions is available at the following link.
The EFEO is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year, which was celebrated at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on December the 3rd in the form of a symposium.
This meeting was an opportunity to review the history of the School, but also the current status of its projects.
To mark its 120th anniversary, the EFEO has put online a webdocumentary entitled "L'École française d'Extrême-Orient: 120 ans de recherches en Asie" [The French School of the Far East: 120 years of research in Asia], which aims to raise awareness of its history, its Centers, its researchers, and the richness of the holdings of its library and archives: prints, printed works, manuscripts, maps, blueprints, photographs, images, etc.
Alain Arrault and Fabienne Jagou participate in the conference "Corps des dieux, Gestes des hommes", organised by Claire Vidal (Université Lumière Lyon 2), within the framework of the Impulsion project, IdexLyon (2019-2021) at the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon, on 25 and 26 November 2021.
For more information
Discover "The EFEO's pāli manuscripts: a living heritage" the new video of the "Asian Treasures of the EFEO" by Maïté Hurel and Javier Schnake.
On November, 25 the international conference "EFEO Photographic Archives in the Social Science Library of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences" is being held in Hanoi, with presentations for the EFEO by Christophe Marquet, Isabelle Poujol and Philippe Le Failler!
