Bibliography by Emmanuel FRANCIS
Books by Emmanuel FRANCIS
This book is an in-depth study of the royal ideology of the Pallava dynasty (South India, 4th-9th... more This book is an in-depth study of the royal ideology of the Pallava dynasty (South India, 4th-9th c. CE). These Hindu kings have left numerous and diverse sources evincing their conception of the world and the society, and particularly their self-representation of kingship. Through the examination of epigraphical and iconographical panegyrics as well as of coinage and Tamil court poetry (Nantikkalampakam), the argument is that, beside the brahmanical model of subordination of king to brahmin, there existed a specific royal discourse, at times contentious. The crucial point of divergence is the Pallavas' claim to the double status of kings and brahmins. In this respect, kingship asserts its independence vis-à-vis the brahmanical class by incorporating it in its lineage, thus achieving the union of "temporal" and "spiritual" powers. The first volume contains the introduction and the presentation of the sources. The first part is a general presentation of Hindu kingship and the Pallava dynasty (origin, history, art). The second part presents the sources considered as testimonies of the royal discourse, contrasting them with other Pallava-period sources of "local" nature. It concludes with considerations about the royal panegyric and the nature of royal sources (issuers, functions, addressees).
Edited Books by Emmanuel FRANCIS
This volume is the fruit of the second workshop-cum-conference on the “Archaeology of Bhakti”, wh... more This volume is the fruit of the second workshop-cum-conference on the “Archaeology of Bhakti”, which took place from 31st July to 13th August 2013 in the Pondicherry Centre of the École française d’Extrême-Orient. “Royal Bhakti, Local Bhakti” was the topic of this scholarly encounter and is the central theme of the present volume, which attempts to clarify the roles of kings, local elites and devotional communities in the development of Bhakti.
When we look at the monuments that are the material traces of Bhakti, we expect kings and their immediate relatives to have played a key role in producing them. But temples commissioned by ruling kings are in fact relatively rare: most sacred sites resonate with the voices of many different patrons responsible for commissioning the buildings or supporting the worship conducted there. Queens, princes, palace women, courtiers, local elites, Brahmin assemblies, merchant communities, and local individuals all contributed to the dynamism of Bhakti.
Far from downplaying the importance of kings as patrons, this volume explores the interactions between these different agents. Do they represent independent and separate streams of Bhakti? Or is there a continuum from large-scale royal temples to locally designed ones? What is the royal share in the development of a Bhakti deeply rooted in a specific place? And what is the local one? How did each respond to the other? Was the patronage by members of royal courts, especially women, of the same nature as that of ruling kings?
After an introduction by the editors, fifteen scholars address such issues by examining the textual foundations of Bhakti, the use of Bhakti by royal figures, the roles of artists and performers, the mediation of queens between the royal and local spheres, and the power of sacred places. The volume concludes with an afterword by Richard H. Davis.
This volume—the outcome of a workshop-cum-conference that took place from 1st to 12th August 2011... more This volume—the outcome of a workshop-cum-conference that took place from 1st to 12th August 2011 in the Pondicherry Centre of the École française d’Extrême-Orient,—is an invitation to practise the “archaeology of Bhakti” with the help of both textual and non-textual sources.
Bhakti, broadly defined as an attitude, a strategy or a style of devotion—one that may be intellectual, emotional or rooted in acts of worship—towards God or the Divine, manifests itself through the personal voices of devotees as well as through the collective effort that constitutes the building of a temple. The “archaeology of Bhakti” aims at correlating different realms of representation, such as texts and images, in order to illuminate the elusive, pan-Indian phenomenon of Bhakti. The focus is on sources, agencies and layers. A special attention is given to inscriptions, which belong both to the realm of artefacts and to that of texts, and which help to distinguish royal demonstrations of Bhakti from local manifestations. In the realm of textual sources, “archaeology” is put to work to identify how literary conventions and concepts have formed and been incorporated, layer upon layer, into a given composition.
After an introduction by the editors about the complexities of the concept and practices of Bhakti in the Indian world, essays by nine scholars explore the phenomena of Bhakti and their chronology from different perspectives (textual, epigraphical, archaeological, iconographical). In the course of these explorations, the reader is transported from the North to the South of the subcontinent, back and forth between Mathurā and Maturai.
Articles & Book Chapters by Emmanuel FRANCIS
En Inde ancienne, parmi les textes dénommés śāstra qui, au sens large, représentent la sagesse tr... more En Inde ancienne, parmi les textes dénommés śāstra qui, au sens large, représentent la sagesse traditionnelle, les Dharmaśāstra énoncent une concep¬tion de la société qu’on qualifiera de brahmanique. Le roi, de fonction guerrière ou politique, s’y trouve subordonné au brahmane, de fonction sacerdotale ou religieuse. Les dynasties hindoues ont souvent souscrit à cette conception brahmanique de la royauté. Cependant, dans certains contextes, des sources royales, épigraphiques et iconographiques, expriment un point de vue différent. Certains aspects de ce dis¬cours royal «hétérodoxe» seront illustrés à partir de l’exemple des Pallava du Tamil Nadu et des Kadamba du Karnataka, deux dynasties sud-indiennes du premier millénaire de notre ère.
In: Dieux, génies, anges et démons dans les cultures orientales & Florilegium Indiae Orientalis Jean-Marie Verpoorten in honorem. Édité par Christophe Vielle, Christian Cannuyer et Dylan Esler. Société Royale Belge d’Études Orientales : Bruxelles (Acta Orientalia Belgica 30).
At the beginning of the 19th c., Francis Whyte Ellis (1777‒1819), one of the major figures of Ori... more At the beginning of the 19th c., Francis Whyte Ellis (1777‒1819), one of the major figures of Orientalism, notably as the discoverer of the Dravidian group of languages, wrote in Tamil a treatise in order to persuade Indians to undertake smallpox vaccination, introducing it as the sixth boon from the cow. A manuscript kept in the BULAC in Paris contains the only Tamil version known so far. The present paper provides the sketch of a deeper investigation about this manuscript, its Tamil text, Ellis’s project and its historical context.
Au début du 19e s., Francis Whyte Ellis (1777-1819), une des figures majeures de l’orientalisme, notamment en tant que découvreur des langues dravidiennes, composa en tamoul un traité pour convaincre les populations indiennes de procéder sans crainte à la vaccination antivariolique, présentant celle-ci comme un sixième bienfait de la vache. Un manuscrit conservé à la BULAC à Paris contient l’unique version tamoule connue à ce jour de ce texte. On donne ici l’ébauche d’une recherche plus approfondie à propos de ce manuscrit, de son texte tamoul, du projet d’Ellis et de son contexte historique.
2015 -- Der seltene Fall eines benutzerfreundlichen tamilischen Manuskripts / The Rare Case of a User-Friendly Tamil Manuscript
Manuskript des Monats / Manuscript of the Month (pp. 20-21, 106). CSMC: Hamburg.
2014 -- 'Woe to Them!': The Śaiva Curse Inscription at Mahābalipuram
Emmanuel Francis & Charlotte Schmid (eds.). The Archaeology of Bhakti I. Mathurā and Maturai, Back and Forth (pp. 175-223). Pondicherry : Institut français de Pondichéry & École française d’Extrême-Orient (Indologie; 125)., 2014
Engraved in no less than four places at Mahābalipuram, a Śaiva curse shows that sectarian rivalri... more Engraved in no less than four places at Mahābalipuram, a Śaiva curse shows that sectarian rivalries between Vaiṣṇavas and Śaivas animated this royal centre in the 7th century. After presenting a sketch of the “religious policy” of the Pallavas from the 4th to 9th century, the author puts this curse in context. He argues that in the middle of the 7th century, the Pallava kings shifted from being religiously open-minded to being oriented towards Śaivism.
He further speculates that, in one of its appearances, the curse responded directly to an act of vandalism by Vaiṣṇavas: the desecration—generally dated to a much later period—of the Rāmānujamaṇḍapa.
2014 -- Introduction. Towards an Archaeology of Bhakti.
Emmanuel Francis & Charlotte Schmid (eds.). The Archaeology of Bhakti I. Mathurā and Maturai, Back and Forth (pp. 1-29). Pondicherry : Institut français de Pondichéry & École française d’Extrême-Orient (Indologie; 125).
2014 -- Royal and Local Bhakti under the Pallavas
Valérie Gillet (ed.) Mapping the Chronology of Bhakti. Milestones, Stepping Stones, and Stumbling Stones. Proceedings of a Workshop held in Honour of Paṇḍit Varadadesikan (pp. 97-133). Pondicherry : Institut français de Pondichéry & École française d’Extrême-Orient (Indologie; 125).
2013 -- Le « panthéon indien » de Châlons
Sur la route des Indes : un ingénieur français au Tamil Nadu (pp. 26-31). Châlons-en-Champagne : Ville de Châlons-en-Champagne & Paris : Somogy éditions d’art., 2013
2013 -- Notices "5 Sūrya", "10 Vīraṉ (« héros en tamoul »)"
Sur la route des Indes : un ingénieur français au Tamil Nadu (pp. 70-71, 80-81). Châlons-en-Champagne : Ville de Châlons-en-Champagne & Paris : Somogy éditions d’art., 2013
2013 -- Notices "13 Parèdre de Siva [i.e. Śiva]", "14 Déesse non identifiée", "15 Kālī ou Cāmuṇḍā", "27-29 Subrahmaṇya"
Sur la route des Indes : un ingénieur français au Tamil Nadu (pp. 88-93, 114-119). Châlons-en-Champagne : Ville de Châlons-en-Champagne & Paris : Somogy éditions d’art., 2013
2013 -- Praising the King in Tamil during the Pallava Period
Whitney Cox & Vincenzo Vergiani (eds.). Bilingual Discourse and Cross-cultural Fertilisation: Sanskrit and Tamil in Medieval India, pp. 305-409. Pondicherry: Institut français de Pondichéry & École française d’Extrême-Orient (Indologie; 121)., 2013
2012 -- Une inscription tamoule inédite au musée d'Histoire du Vietnam de Hô Chi Minh-Ville
Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 95-96 (2008), pp. 406-423, 2012
2012 -- The Genealogy of the Pallavas: From Brahmins to Kings
Religions of South Asia, 5 (1-2), 2011, pp. 339-363, 2012
In their epigraphical genealogies the Pallavas of South India (fourth to ninth centuries ce) clai... more In their epigraphical genealogies the Pallavas of South India (fourth to ninth centuries ce) claim to belong to a brahmin lineage that gradually embraced the duty of kings. As such, these genealogies present a definition of kingship that differs from its Brahmanical conceptualization. I show how the Pallavas accounted in their 'mythical genealogies' for their royal occupation through a transformation in two steps: from pure brahmins to brahmin-warriors, and from brahmin-warriors to kings. I explain how the birth of the eponymous hero Pallava, from Aśvatthāman and a mother who has a strong link with royalty, marks the shift towards kingship. I describe how this royal status of the dynasty is confirmed by the integration of royal figures from other dynasties into the 'pseudo-historical genealogies' that link the eponym to the historical kings. I then explore the mythical patrimony of the Pallavas, discussing how we might understand in a broader context the ideological purport of this royal claim to both brahmin and kṣatriya descent.
2012 -- Les écoles et l’alphabet des tamouls. Manuscrit de Philippe Van der Haeghen (1874), édité et annoté
Christian Cannuyer & Nadine Cherpion (eds.). Acta Orientalia Belgica XXV. Regards sur l’orientalisme belge, suivis d’études égyptologiques et orientales. Mélanges offerts à Claude Vandersleyen, p. 127-141. Bruxelles : Société belge des études orientales., 2012
Manuscript Cultures Newsletter 4 (Austellungskatalog „Manuskripkulturen / Manuscript Cultures“), p. 122-125., 2011
2010 -- De loin, de près : chronique des études pallava III
Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 94 (2007), p. 253-317., 2010
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Bibliography by Emmanuel FRANCIS
Books by Emmanuel FRANCIS
Edited Books by Emmanuel FRANCIS
When we look at the monuments that are the material traces of Bhakti, we expect kings and their immediate relatives to have played a key role in producing them. But temples commissioned by ruling kings are in fact relatively rare: most sacred sites resonate with the voices of many different patrons responsible for commissioning the buildings or supporting the worship conducted there. Queens, princes, palace women, courtiers, local elites, Brahmin assemblies, merchant communities, and local individuals all contributed to the dynamism of Bhakti.
Far from downplaying the importance of kings as patrons, this volume explores the interactions between these different agents. Do they represent independent and separate streams of Bhakti? Or is there a continuum from large-scale royal temples to locally designed ones? What is the royal share in the development of a Bhakti deeply rooted in a specific place? And what is the local one? How did each respond to the other? Was the patronage by members of royal courts, especially women, of the same nature as that of ruling kings?
After an introduction by the editors, fifteen scholars address such issues by examining the textual foundations of Bhakti, the use of Bhakti by royal figures, the roles of artists and performers, the mediation of queens between the royal and local spheres, and the power of sacred places. The volume concludes with an afterword by Richard H. Davis.
Bhakti, broadly defined as an attitude, a strategy or a style of devotion—one that may be intellectual, emotional or rooted in acts of worship—towards God or the Divine, manifests itself through the personal voices of devotees as well as through the collective effort that constitutes the building of a temple. The “archaeology of Bhakti” aims at correlating different realms of representation, such as texts and images, in order to illuminate the elusive, pan-Indian phenomenon of Bhakti. The focus is on sources, agencies and layers. A special attention is given to inscriptions, which belong both to the realm of artefacts and to that of texts, and which help to distinguish royal demonstrations of Bhakti from local manifestations. In the realm of textual sources, “archaeology” is put to work to identify how literary conventions and concepts have formed and been incorporated, layer upon layer, into a given composition.
After an introduction by the editors about the complexities of the concept and practices of Bhakti in the Indian world, essays by nine scholars explore the phenomena of Bhakti and their chronology from different perspectives (textual, epigraphical, archaeological, iconographical). In the course of these explorations, the reader is transported from the North to the South of the subcontinent, back and forth between Mathurā and Maturai.
Articles & Book Chapters by Emmanuel FRANCIS
Au début du 19e s., Francis Whyte Ellis (1777-1819), une des figures majeures de l’orientalisme, notamment en tant que découvreur des langues dravidiennes, composa en tamoul un traité pour convaincre les populations indiennes de procéder sans crainte à la vaccination antivariolique, présentant celle-ci comme un sixième bienfait de la vache. Un manuscrit conservé à la BULAC à Paris contient l’unique version tamoule connue à ce jour de ce texte. On donne ici l’ébauche d’une recherche plus approfondie à propos de ce manuscrit, de son texte tamoul, du projet d’Ellis et de son contexte historique.
He further speculates that, in one of its appearances, the curse responded directly to an act of vandalism by Vaiṣṇavas: the desecration—generally dated to a much later period—of the Rāmānujamaṇḍapa.