DESVAULX, Nicolas-Jacques, baron d’Oinville. Chandernagor 28.3.1745 — Paris 9.7.1817. French Officer in India. Son of an officer working in India for the French Company, grew up in Paris. In 1762 he joined the army and after a few years was sent according to his own wish to India. In 1778 commanded French artillery in the siege of Pondichéry. In 1787 sent to the Netherlands. Emigrated because of the Revolution, he fought in Condé’s army and lived in England. He was close to Jesuits and interested in their work in India. His manuscript, found in the India Office in 1971, showed the real origin of abbé Dubois’ work – and he himself had copied it from Cœurdoux (as shown by Sylvia Murr).
Publications: L’Inde philosophique entre Bossuet et Voltaire. 1. Mœurs et coutumes des indiens 1777. Un inédit de père G.-L. Cœurdoux. s.j. dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx. 247 p. Éd. par S. Murr. P.E.F.E.O. 146:1. P. 1987.
Sources: *S. Murr, “N.-J.D. (1745–1817), véritable auteur des Mœeurs… de l’Abbé Dubois”, Purushartha 3, 1977, 245-267, and L’Inde philosophique 2. P. 1987; I.G. Županov & M. Fourcade, D.O.L.F. 299f.; dates in data.bnf.fr.
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