Indra Manuel

Indra Manuel is a research associate at the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Pondicherry Center. From November 2014 to May 2019, she worked at the Pondicherry Center with Eva Wilden as part of the NETamil project, dedicated to the critical edition of fundamental texts of ancient Tamil literature. She contributed to the preparation of the critical editions of the Meyppāṭṭiyal and Uvamaviyal sections of the Tolkāppiyam, accompanied by Pērāciriyar’s commentary and an English translation.

From May 2019 to April 2025, she participated in the DHARMA project – “The Domestication of ‘Hindu’ Asceticism and the Religious Making of South and Southeast Asia,” led for the EFEO by Arlo Griffiths and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 program (Grant Agreement No. 809994). As part of this project, she completed the first critical edition and English translation of the Ciramalai Antāti, a series of one hundred Tamil verses likely inscribed in the 9th century on the rear wall of the Pallava cave at Tiruchirappalli Rock.

Since May 2025, she has been participating in the TAMILEX project, carried out under a funding agreement between the EFEO and the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” at the University of Hamburg. As part of this project, she is working on the preparation of a critical edition of the Malaipaṭukaṭām.

His research focuses primarily on classical Tamil literature, the Tolkāppiyam, the Caṅkam corpus, and Tamil literary theory.

• 1971, Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram
• 1973, Master of Tamil Studies, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
• 1974, Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.), Government Training College, Thiruvananthapuram
• 1985, Master of Education (M.Ed.), Meston College of Education, Chennai
• 1985, Ph.D. in Tamil Literature, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram

• Senior Researcher, NETamil Project, Pondicherry Centre, November 2014–May 2019.
• Senior Researcher, DHARMA Project – The Domestication of ‘Hindu’ Asceticism and the Religious Making of South and Southeast Asia, Pondicherry Centre, May 2019–April 2025.
• Senior Researcher, TAMILEX Project, Pondicherry Centre, since May 2025.

• Researcher (Senior Fellow), Cognate Method of Teaching Dravidian Languages Project, Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala, 1975–1977
• Senior Fellow and Principal Investigator, International School of Dravidian Linguistics, Pondicherry Regional Center, 1981
• Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor (Tamil), Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirappalli, 1985–2010

Translated with DeepL.com