Studies in Memory of Pandit N. R. Bhatt (Melanges a la memoire de Pandit N. R. Bhatt)

This collection of essays honours the memory of the late Pandit N.R. Bhatt, who contributed to pioneering research into the history of Saivism in the French institutions of research in Pondicherry, notably through his editions of Sanskrit works of the Saivasiddhanta and through his work of gathering the largest collection of Saiva manuscripts worldwide, recognised as a Memory of the World collection by UNESCO in 2005. After a preface about N.R. Bhatt’s life and a bibliography of his œuvre, sixteen contributions by colleagues and disciples cover aspects of the history of tantrism, of Saiva ritual and doctrine. Two more articles deal with iconography and one last contribution publishes an eighteenth-century account of the siege of Pondicherry in 1778.