DAVID-NÉEL, Alexandra (née Louise Eugènie Alexandrine Marie David). St.Mandé (Seine) 24.10.1868 — Digne (Basses-Alpes) 8.9.1969. French Bauddha and Traveller. The only child of Louis Pierre David, a huguenot freemason and ardent republican, also journalist and teacher , and Alexandra Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium. At…
DAUMAL, René. Boulzicourt (Ardennes) 16.3.1908 — Paris 21.5.1944. French Poet interested in India. Educated at Lycée de Reims and Lycée Henri-IV, studies at Sorbonne. Born in rural milieu he became a socialist and active anticlerical, but at the same time he was also against materialism. In the late 1920s he…
DARMESTETER, James. Château-Salins (Meurth, Lorraine) 28.3.1849 — Maisons-Laffitte near Paris 19.10.1894. French Iranian Scholar. Professor in Paris. Son of Calmann D., a Jewish bookbinder, and Rosalie Brandeis, younger brother of the philologist Arsène D. (1846–1888). Educated in Paris, matriculated from Lycée Concordet in 1866. Then studied philology (lic. 1868) and…
DANIÉLOU, Alain (nom-de-plume Shiva Sharan). Neuilly-sur-Seine (Seine) 4.10.1907 — Lonay, Switzerland 27.1.1994. French Musicologist deeply interested in India. Son of Charles D. (1878–1953), an anticlerical Breton journalist and politician, and Madeleine Clamorgan, an ardent catholic, his brother Jean D. (1905–1974) was a jesuit and cardinal. Educated at Institution de Sainte-Croix…
COURTILLIER, Gaston. Buoy-Luxembourg (Aube) 20.4.1877 — ?.12.1933. French Indologist. From 1897 student of Lévi and Finot at É.P.H.É. In the early 1920s he was Professor at the lycée of Mulhouse, then at Lycée Fustel de Coulanges in Strasbourg and in 1924-34 also Chargé de conférences for Sanskrit at Faculté de…
COURT, Claude Auguste. Grasse (or Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, both in Alpes-Maritimes) 24.9.1793 — Paris 21.1.1880. French soldier serving as a General under Rañjit Singh. Son of an officer, André Ambroise C. Educated at Lycée de Casale in Piémont in 1804-10, at École polytéchnique and in 1812-13 at the military academy of Saint-Cyr…
COURBIN, Henri. 1??? — ????. French Teacher interested in Sanskrit. In 1931 teacher in a secondary school (lycée de Lyon) in Paris. Both Edgerton (Language 8, 1932, 304) and Rylands (BSOS 6:4, 1932, 1029) found the grammar rather acceptable as elementary book. Publications: Grammaire élémentaire du sanscrit classique. 1-2. 128+119…
CORDIER, Palmyr Uldéric Alexis. Amancey (Doubs) 18.2.1871 — Besançon 5.9.1914. French Physician and Indologist, an early specialist of the Āyurveda. Born in a modest family, educated in Besançon. Studied medicine in Toulon and Bordeaux, at Marine medical school. Became friend with —> Liétard and began the study of Sanskrit. Dr.med.…
CORDIER, Henri. New Orleans 8.8.1849 — Cairo, Egypt 16.3.1925. French Scholar of Asian History. Son of Erneste-Eugène C., a Savoyan working in the U.S.A. as businessman and banker, and Amélie-Henriette Oudin. In 1852 he came to France with his mother and was educated in Paris, also while his parents were…
CORBIN, Henry. Paris 14.4.1903 — Paris 7.10.1978. French Philosopher, Theologian and Scholar of Iranian Religion and Islam. Son of Henri Arthur C. and Eugénie Fournier. Born in a Protestant family, but had catholic education. Studied philosophy in Paris (degree 1925), in 1928 led by Massignon to Suhrawardi. Now also studied…