From the concept of charity in Indian religious thought, the date of Bhagavata- Purana, the devotional literature of Tamilnadu, the Saivagamas, the motivations of self-immolation by fire in the Buddhist context of thought, echoes of Sufism in India, the semantic field of the word punya, up to the technique dhāraņā in Yoga, the psychology of the unconscious, the limits of human powers, the Oedipus complex as evidenced in a Buddhist Tantra, this book encompasses a variety of subjects in the History of Indian religions and philosophy. The common feature of these articles, selected from the vast corpus of Jean Filliozat's writings, is their orientation towards a global description of the human person, body and mind with their interactions in religious, intellectual and moral activity, as conceived in traditional India. They emphasize the important concepts, they show their right place in their Indian cultural context and they document them with accurate references to basic Sanskrit, Påli, Tamil and Tibetan texts, occasionally to archaeological data.

Jean Filliozat (1906-1982), initially a medical doctor practising as an eye-specia- list, has been a renowned Indologist. Professor of Indian Languages and Literatures at the College de France (Paris) from 1952 to 1978, Member of the French Academy, Doctor honoris causa of the University of Varanasi, etc., he dispensed his teachings in almost all the fields of Indology. He worked a lot for the organi- sation of research in France, in India and in the Far East. He was the founder and Director of the French Institute of Indology in Pondicherry and Director of Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, a centre of research for the whole of Asia, with branches in India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Japan, etc. He mastered Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Tamil. He left many publica- tions, books and articles, on medicine, Ayurveda, Yoga, Indian Sciences, Indian Religions and Philosophy, Archaeology, History, Manuscripts, Tamil Studies, Historical Relations of India with the ancient Mediterranean world and with Medieval. South-East Asia. He is remembered for his sharp scientific acumen and his warm, sympathetic attitude towards India and other Asian countries.

THE PRESENT COLLECTION of articles aims at acquainting the roaders with a part of the Indological works of Jean Filliozat, a scholar of repute who, through the great originality of his thought and method, gave a new direction to Indology. He was much in advance of his times and pioneered research in such new fields that the impact of his offort and writings will be felt long after him, and in a field like historical ecology what he set in motion will be fully grasped only in the future.

Born on November 4th 1906, Jean Filliozat had his first taste. of Indian culture in his schooldays through the writings of a 19th century French poet, Leconte de Lisle, who had adapted in verse some Vedic and classical myths and legends of India. He was also very keen on science and scientific research. After completing his higher studies in medicine he became a doctor in 1930. Upto 1947 he practised medicine as an eye-specialist. His medical studios did not deter him from pursuing his desire to learn Sanskrit, Tamil and Tibetan. His first published works were about medical research: two books on ocular physiology and strabisın (1930, 1932). Subsequently all his research and scientific study was devoted to Indology.

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