Fwd: Demise of Pandit N.R. BHATT

[Dominic Goodall]

> Subject: Demise of Pandit N.R. BHATT
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> We are sad to inform you that Pandit N.R. BHATT, aged 88, passed  
> away on July 19th 2009 at his residence in Mandavalli, Mylapore,  
> Chennai, at around 9 am.
>
> Dr. N.R. BHATT was born on July 24th 1920, in the State of  
> Karnataka. He studied Vyakarana Siromani at Venkateswar University  
> at Tirupati.
>
> Member of the EFEO and for many years in charge of indological  
> projects conducted at the French Institute of Pondichery, Dr. N.R.  
> BHATT was the principal collector of the manuscripts of the IFP.  He  
> travelled throughout South India visiting monasteries, temples and  
> private collections, always searching in particular for Saiva  
> manuscripts, but often bringing back entire collections that  
> included also a great variety of other texts, which explains why the  
> library now contains so much besides Saiva material. In addition to  
> collecting old palm-leaf manuscripts, he had manuscripts of many  
> Shaiva works transcribed into Devanagari, in clearly legible  
> characters on uniform-sized pages. He thus constituted in  
> Pondicherry the largest collection of Shaivaiddhanta manuscripts in  
> the world, which was recognized by UNESCO as a “Memory of the World”  
> collection in 2005.
>
> His numerous editions of Shaiva texts, co-published in the  
> Pondicherry series by the IFP and the EFEO, made him famous in  
> indological circles throughout the world.  Of particular note is his  
> monumental two-volume edition of a major work of tenth-century  
> Kashmirian scholarship, the commentary of Ramakantha on the  
> Matangapâramesvara.  A felicitation volume honouring him for his  
> life's achievements appeared in 1994, but he continued to publish  
> thereafter, and collaborated (with Jean Filliozat and Pierre-Sylvain  
> Filliozat) in the production of one more important book, a five- 
> volume edition and English translation of the Ajitamahâtantra  
> (IGNCA, 2005).
>
> Dr. N.R. BHATT was a pioneer of the academic study of the Shaiva  
> traditions and his contribution to this field has been quite simply  
> enormous.
>
> His funeral service was held in Chennai yesterday, July 19th, at 12  
> pm.
>
>
> V. Marimoutou
> Director of the French Institute of Pondicherry
>
> D. Goodall
> Head of the Pondicherry Centre of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient
>
>