LAMAIRESSE, Pierre Eugène. Châlons-sur-Marne (now Châlons-en-Champagne) 14.7.1817 — Marengo (Hadjout), Algeria 17.4.1898. French Engineer interested in India. The youngest son of Jean-Baptiste-Cyprien Lamairesse, an agriculturalist, studied from 1837 at École polytechnique and became 1845 a hydraulic engineer. Worked in various parts of France. Served as engineer in French India in 1860–66 working on dams and other irrigation projects in Pondicherry and Karaikal. Back in France, he became an author writing much on India and, as a polyglot, on other Asian countries. Later moved to Algeria, retired 1878.
Lamairesse knew many languages, but it is nevertheless well possible that his translations were not made directly from Indian original texts.. His collection of South Indian temple sculptures he presented to the museum of Châlons.
Publications: Translated from Tamil: Poésies populaires du sud de l’Inde. 364 p. P. 1867 (Morale de Tirouvalluver, légende et tragédie de Saranga, chants sacrés en l’honneur de Siva et de Vichnou); Chants populaires du sud de l’Inde. 334 p. P. 1868.
– Translated: Théologie hindoue. Le Prem Sagar. Océan d’amour. 49+346 p. P. 1892; Le Kama Sutra. Règles de l’amour de Vatsyayana. 300 p. P. n.d. (c. 1891).
– L’Inde après le Buddha. 393 p. P. 1891; L’Inde après le Buddha. La vie du Buddha, suivie du Bouddhisme dans l’Indo-Chine. 288 p. P. 1892.
– L’empire chinois: le Bouddhisme en Chine et au Thibet. 12+440 p. P. 1893.
– Vie de Mahomet. 1-2. P. 1897-98; books about China and Japan and on hydrology.
Sources: L. Feer, RHR 26, 1892, 339-347 (review of L’Inde après le Buddha); V. Verardi in agorha.inha.fr with portrait: books in Catal. gén. de la libr. fr. 15, 1891–1899, P. 1904; Wikipédia with photo.
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