Indian Studies Research Group - GREI, EA 2120

The GREI represents ancient India in all its literary, artistic, philosophical, and religious creativity, with some thirty researchers, some twenty theses in preparation, ambitious research projects, significant international networks, and a large number of high-impact publications.

The GREI's work focuses on the languages, literatures, religions, and intellectual cultures of ancient and medieval India, understood in the broadest sense: Indo-Iranian (and, beyond, Indo-European) protohistory, Vedic and classical Brahmanism, and areas of influence of Indian civilization, notably through Buddhism (Gandhāra, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, etc.). The languages and literatures studied include, in addition to Sanskrit, Pāli, and Middle Indian languages, Tibetan, Tokharian, Javanese, Persian, and others. The research conducted by GREI members touches on all the religious components of ancient India: Brahmanism and Hinduism, particularly in its various Shaivite expressions, Buddhism, and Jainism. Philosophy plays an important role at the various points of contact between these religions, as do traditional grammar and aesthetics.

GREI's work is characterized primarily by its historical-philological approach, with a strong paleographic and manuscriptological component. It also includes the study of the visual, plastic, and musical expressions of ancient and medieval India, historiography, and comparative studies.

After hosting the projet ERC HisTochText (History of the Tocharian Texts of the Pelliot Collection; PI Georges-Jean Pinault), the GREI now hosts, among several others, the ERC Consolidator project MANTRATANTRAM ("Monsoon Asia as the Nexus for the Transfer of Tantra along the Maritime Routes") led by Andrea Acri. The GREI is also distinguished by an important network of international collaborations in India, Japan, China, the United States and Europe.

Director: Vincent Eltschinger

Unit website: https://grei.fr/en/home/