Arlo Griffiths


Having been trained in Indology (with a focus on Sanskrit) at the University of Leiden and at Harvard, Arlo Griffiths began his academic career with a doctoral fellowship from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research that allowed him to pursue research in Vedic philology. His research focused on the Paippalāda tradition of the Atharvaveda, still alive in Orissa (India) to this day. In the field, he learned the (Indo-Aryan) Oriya language, and started being interested in non-brahmanical traditions. In the margin of his doctoral research, he was able to do some work in the domain of descriptive linguistics of the tribal languages of the region, particularly those belonging to the so-called 'Munda' branch of the Austroasiatic family. While still remaining active as Indologist with a specialty in Vedic studies, the focus of his research gradually shifted to Southeast Asia, first and foremost the epigraphical documents in Sanskrit and in vernacular languages, both Austroasiatic and Austronesian (Cham, Khmer, Malay, Javanese). His research priority is the publication of so far unstudied manuscripts and epigraphical documents, in the form of critical editions, and their exploitation from the historical point of view.

Having obtained the doctorate at Leiden University in 2004, Arlo Griffiths was immediately appointed lecturer in Indian Religions at the University of Groningen. The next year, in 2005, he returned to Leiden, having been appointed to the Chair of Sanskrit. He joined the EFEO in 2008, and has been posted at its branch in Jakarta from January 2009 to December 2014. Since 2015, he is posted in France.

Living in Lyon, he is member of the UMR Histoire et Souces des Mondes Antiques, but travels up and own to Paris regularly, to teach at the Maison de l'Asie his weekly seminars that are part of the Asian Studies MA co-taught by EFEO, EPHE and EHESS. He supervises PhD students at the EPHE as member of its École doctorale.

His publications are listed at https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/arlo-griffiths.

Arlo Griffiths
Arlo Griffiths

Directeur d'études

Histoire de l'Asie du Sud-Est

(Professor of Southeast Asian History)

École française d'Extrême-Orient
Jl. Ampera III no.26
Kemang
Jakarta Selatan 12550
Indonesia
Tel/fax +62 21 781 14 76
+62 21 781 47 85
arlo.griffiths@efeo.net