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Founded by the minister of public education, Victor Duruy, an historian close to Napoleon III, the EPHE was initially divided into four departments: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Natural History and Physiology, and Historical and Philological Sciences Its aim was to ‘supplement theory-based teaching with exercises to consolidate and expand upon it’, according to Article 1 of the decree of 31st July 1868. A fifth department for Religious Sciences was founded in 1886, including a chair for the religions of India. To this day, these two chairs have helped educate Indologists and facilitate constant exchange between the scholars of Europe and India.
The chair for Sanskrit language was first held by Eugène Louis Hauvette-Besnault, director of studies, and Abel Bergaigne, initially a supervisor, then lecturer and director of studies until his early death in 1888 following a fall in the mountains. Curator at the library of the University of Paris, Hauvette-Besnault continued the mammoth task of publishing the reproduction and translation of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa initiated by Eugène Burnouf. He published the fourth volume in 1884 and began working on the fifth and final volume that was released in 1898, ten years after his death, by one of his EPHE students, Alfred Roussel. A high-flying grammarian, Abel Bergaigne had, simultaneously with his lecturing duties, published a Manuel pour étudier la langue sanscrite (Manual for Studying the Sanskrit Language), republished in 1890 by his student, Victor Henry. His expertise in Vedic Sanskrit enabled him to publish writings that included La religion védique d’après les hymnes du Rig-Veda (The Vedic Religion, after the Rigvedic Hymns), a four-volume œuvre that proved to be a seminal work.
In 1885, Hauvette-Besnault and Bergaigne were joined by Sylvain Lévi, who, the following year, became a lecturer in the religions of India in the newly created 5th department. Elected to the Collège de France in 1894, he continued to teach in the two Human Sciences departments, assisted by brilliant students such as Louis Finot in the 4th department and Alfred Foucher in the 5th department. Sylvain Lévi used the Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale to run his early courses at the EPHE.
In 1930, Louis Finot was replaced by Louis Renou, who taught there until his death in 1966. His work was inextricably linked to that of Jean Filliozat, for whom the chair in Indian philology was created in 1945. The interwar years were similarly shaped by the – often voluntary – courses led by Nadine Stchoupak, who also participated in the activities of the Institut de Civilisation Indienne with her teacher, Sylvain Lévi.
The creation of the EPHE meant a separate chair for Sanskrit language, distinct from the chair in comparative linguistics, held by Michel Bréal until 1915. Abel Bergaigne also held conferences there. Antoine Meillet succeeded Bréal as director of studies from 1915 to 1927, assisted by Robert Gauthiot. In 1919, Indologist Jules Bloch replaced Gauthiot until his death in 1951. Through his teachings on various Indian languages, Bloch reinforced Indian studies as a key element of both the EPHE and the Collège de France, where he was elected to replace Sylvain Lévi in 1937. He himself was succeeded by Armand Minard, who continued to teach the Indian component of the comparativist approach alongside Émile Benveniste, director of studies from 1927 to 1969 and similarly elected to the Collège de France in 1937.
The 4th department of the EPHE was also given a chair in the history and philology of modern and medieval India, created in 1963 for Charlotte Vaudeville, who ran her first classes in the city of Pune in Maharashtra. One of her students at the time was Nityanand Tiwari, who then became a professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi.
The chair of Indian religions, inaugurated by Sylvain Lévi, was also led by Alfred Foucher, first as a lecturer from 1894, then as an assistant director in 1907 and finally as director of studies from 1913 until his retirement in 1936. He held this teaching position simultaneously with other academic roles at the Sorbonne, where he was appointed professor, at the École française d’Extrême-Orient, where he was director, and at the Institut de Civilisation Indienne, which he helped found in 1928. Alongside Foucher, this chair also included courses led by Paul Masson-Oursel (1927-1953) and Olivier Lacombe (1947-1971). Madeleine Biardeau was appointed director of studies in 1960, and, in 1965, she welcomed Anne-Marie Esnoul onboard as a lecturer, before Esnoul replaced Olivier Lacombe in 1972.
The EPHE courses centred on the texts and religions of India, and consolidated by new chairs, continue to run even today.
Published in july 2024