BALLIN, Louis. 18?? — 1???. Frenchman apparently knowing Sanskrit. Doctor. “Ancien sous-inspecteur des forêts”, in 1897 living in Autun. Continued Fauche’s Mahābhārata translation. To quote Carrière, it is “parfois tres belle … souvent inexacte, ou incompréhensible”. In the introduction he says that he is no longer young and thanks Regnaud…
BAILLY, Jean-Sylvain. Paris 15.9.1736 — Paris 10.11.1793. French Mathematician, Astronomist and Historian of Astronomy. Son of Jacques B., an artist. Attracted early attention with his scientific skill. From 1763 member of French Academy. Also a politician, participated in early revolution, but was then executed. In 1789-91 Mayor of Paris. Explained…
BADER, Clarisse. Strasbourg 28.12.1840 — Paris 5/14.2.1902. Mlle. French Journalist and Pioneer of Women’s Study, also interested in India. Daughter of Alsatian army officer Daniel-Michel B. At the age of 20 she decided to write the history of the condition of women in human society, and started this task with…
BACOT, Jacques. St.-Germain-en-Laye (Indre) 4.7.1877 — Paris 25.6.1965. French Traveller and Tibetologist. Born in a family of cloth merchants, son of Raymond B. and Marie Louise Bapterosses. With father and grandfather, who were experienced travellers, he himself made a journey round the world in 1904. In 1907 he conducted his…
AYMONIER, Étienne-François. Le Châtelard (Savoie) 26.2.1844 — Paris 21.1.1929. French Colonial Officer and South-East Asian Scholar (the first European Specialist of Khmer and great pioneer of archaeology and epigraphy). Served in South-East Asia in 1869-88. Born in a family of agriculturalists in the then still Sardinian Savoy, son of Claude…
AUTRAN, Charles. Saint-Estèphe (Gironde) 29.10.1879 — 17.8.1952. French Oriental Scholar. Son of Fréderick Autran. After studies in France (?) and at Institute d’archéologie orientale in Cairo he became Professor at Faculté des lettres, University of Aix-en-Provence. In the early 1920s there, but in 1926 seems to be living in Paris.…
AUDOUIN, Édouard-M. Candé (Maine-et-Loire) 1864 — 1933. French Classical Philologist, Linguist and Historian. Agrégé 1887, Ph.D. 1898 Paris. From the 1890s Professor of Greek and Roman antiquities at Faculté des lettres, Université de Poitiers, still there in the 1920s. Publications: Diss. I. De la déclinaison dans les langues indo-européennes et…
AUBOYER, Jeannine. Paris 6.9.1912 — Sèvres near Paris 6.2.1990. French Indologist (Art Historian). Conservator and Professor in Paris. Daughter of an auctioneer, studies in Paris mainly at É.P.H.É. (under Pelliot, Przyluski and Mus) and École du Louvre 1929-34 (Hackin, Grousset and Stern), also at Inst. de l’Art et d’Archéologie (Foucher,…
ASSIER DE POMPIGNAN, Raoul-Henri. Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines) 2.6.1862 — Paris 11.12.1947. French Naval Officer interested in Indology. Son of Adrien A. de P. and Marie Gastel. In 1884 graduated from École navale. In 1909 naval lieutenant, in the 1920s captain of frigate, in the 1930s retired, living in Tamaris-sur-Mer (Var), then…
ARIEL, Édouard-Simon. Nantes 5.10.1818 — Pondichéry 23.4.1854. French Marine Officer and Indologist (Tamil scholar) in India. Student of Burnouf in Paris. In 1844 he went to Pondichéry and worked as Deputy Commissar of marine and as Conservator of Pondichéry Library and Archives. On advice of Burnouf, began collecting and studying…