ROUSSEL, Alfred. Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes, Brétagne 17.1.1849 — Monsoult (Val d’ouse) 6.8.1921. French Indologist in Swizerland. Professor in Fribourg. Son of a butcher. After Collège de Saint-Malo studied at seminary of Rennes, ordained priest in 1873. Served as vicar, in 1887 joined Oratorians. Now studies of Indology in Paris under Bergaigne, Hauvette-Besnault and Lévi. As a Catholic priest he did not get along well with Parisian Indologists. In 1903-20 Professor of Sanskrit at Fribourg, Switzerland.

Publications: “Étude du Pañcarātra”, Mélanges de Harlez 1896, 251ff.

Cosmologie hindoue d’après le Bhâgavata Purâṇa. 399 p. P. 1898; after Hauvette-Besnault’s death completed part 5 of the Le Bhâgavata-Purâṇa. 5+651 p. 1898 (books 11-12 by A.R.).

Translated: Légendes morales de l’Inde, empruntées au Bhâgavata Purâna et au Mahâbhârata. 1-2. 340+370 p. P. 1900: Le Râmâyana de Vâlmîki. 1-3. P. 1903-07.

La religion védique. 6+312 p. P. 1909.

– “Les anomalies du Râmâyaṇa”, JA 10:15, 1910, 5-69; “Rāmāyaṇa: Études philologiques” Le Muséon 1910-11; “L’Inde sociale d’après le Sabhā-Parvan”, S. Lévi Vol. 1911, 91-109; “Les idées religieuses et sociales du Mahābhārata Sabhāparvan”, Le Muséon 14, 1913, 103-175.

Idées religieuses et sociales de l’Inde ancienne d’après les legendes du Mahābhārata. 110 p. Fribourg 1911; Le bouddhisme primitif. 9+431 p. P. 1911; Le bouddhisme contemporain. 9+520 p. P. 1916.

Also wrote on Catholic history and thought, especially on F. R. de Lamennais, and on Greek religion.

Sources: Hist.-biogr. Lexikon der Schweiz 5; R. Lardinois, L’invention de l’Inde. 2007, ch. 5 (online version); French Wikipédia briefly.