Christophe Vielle

Region of Interest

South Asia

Primary Country of Residence

Belgium

Title

Professor

Affiliation

University of Louvain

Email

christophe.vielle@uclouvain.be

Mailing Address

University of Louvain
Oriental Institute
Place Blaise Pascal 1
B - 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, BELGIUM

Phone/Fax Number(s)

phones: +32-(0)2-6406266 (residence)
+32-(0)10-474954 (office)

Countries of Specialization

India

Education

Christophe A.M. Vielle, of Swiss ancestry, was born on the 5th of February
1967 in Brussels, Belgium. After a Master's degree in both Classical
philology and Oriental studies at the University of Louvain, he concluded
in 1996 a Doctoral degree in Oriental Philology and History devoted to the
comparative mythology of Greek and Sanskrit epics. The work, issued in the
Publications de l'Institut orientaliste de Louvain series (Peeters Press),
won the 1994-96 Franz Cumont Prize from the Belgian Royal Academy of
Sciences and Arts. As postdoctoral researcher, he was elected to the 1998
Michael Coulson Research Fellowship in Indology at Wolfson College,
Oxford, which gave him the opportunity to work on Sanskrit manuscripts at
the Indian Institute, as well as, in London, at the Royal Asiatic Society
and in the British Library (Oriental and India Office Collections).

Research Interests

In 1998 Christophe Vielle started the Jaimini Epic and Puranic Project with Dr Petteri
Koskikallio (from the University of Helsinki) and founded the
interuniversity Belgian Association for Indology. In 1999, he was
appointed as (full-time) Research Associate from the Belgian National
Foundation for Scientific Research and became (part-time) Ordinary
Lecturer in Sanskrit and classical Indology at the University of Louvain.
His habilitation thesis was achieved in the beginning of 2007. His
scientific interest lays in Puraa.na and Kaavya literature from Premodern
Kerala, where he travelled in search for manuscripts during the years
2000, 2002 and 2004 (collection of about 10,000 photographies of
Malayalam-script mss.). He is at the moment concluding the first volume
of the editio princeps of the Jaiminiiyasa.mhitaa of the
Brahmaa.n.dapuraa.na, an imporant forgotten work probably composed in a
royal court of that region around 1300 AD. In 2005, he was elected to the
International Board of the Dubrovnik International Conference on the
Sanskrit Epics and Puraa.nas.

Publications

Major indological Publications

- La Jaiminiiyasa.mhitaa du Brahmaa.n.dapuraa.na, Madhyamabhaaga, vol. 1:
Adhyaaya 1-15. Introduction, edition et traduction, Louvain : Peeters, Publications
de l'Institut orientaliste de Louvain (in course of publication).

- "From the Vaayuprokta to the Vaayu and Brahmaa.n.da Puaa.nas:
Preliminary remarks towards a critical edition of the vaayuprokta
Brahmaa.n.daapuraa.na", in Epics, khilas, and Puraa.nas: Continuities and
ruptures. Proceedings of the Third Dubrovnik International Conference on
the Sanskrit Epics and Puraa.nas, September 2002, ed. P. Koskikallio,
Zagreb : Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2005, pp. 535-560.

- with P. Koskikallio, "Epic and Puranic Texts attributed to Jaimini",
Indologica Taurinensia 27, 2001, pp. 67-93.

Keywords

classical indology ; Sanskrit ; epics ; photography ; ...