Centre d'Etudes Sud-Asiatiques et Himalayennes - CESAH

The CEIAS (Centre d'Études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud—Center for South Asian Studies) is the largest French research institute in social sciences dealing with the Indian subcontinent. The Center is a joint research unit, combining scholars from the EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales—School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) and the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherch

e Scientifique—French National Center for Scientific Research). Created in the mid-1950s by Louis Dumont, the Center's aim was to renew the study of South Asia by combining social science-based methods and findings with those of classical indology. Louis Dumont, Lucien Bernot, Jean-Luc Chambard (social anthropology), Daniel Thorner (economic history), Robert Lingat (law), Madeleine Biardeau (religion) were among the Center's founding members. The CEIAS library boasts France's largest collection of books and periodicals on modern and contemporary South Asia. Its catalogue is included in the BULAC database, which can be accessed online. CEIAS scholars come from a variety of different academic backgrounds, covering a wide range of fields—social anthropology, demography, geography, economic, social and intellectual history, ancient and modern literature, linguistics, philosophy and history of science, political science, religion, sociology—and more. Members are also affiliated with an array of different institutions, where they teach and conduct research. As for CEIAS-specific activities, members work both individually and collaboratively, federating specialists from various backgrounds and fields to foster productive dialogue. Since 1975, the CEIAS has been publishing a collection of edited volumes under the title Puruṣārtha. These volumes feature cutting-edge reasearch from French and foreign scholars, and the series has become a well-known publication in the field of South Asian studies, with a solid reputation not just in France but in the whole world. Puruṣārtha provides a window into the main research trends and scientific issues debated at the CEIAS. In 2011, the online journal SAMAJ (South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal) became affiliated with the CEIAS. It is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to social science research on South Asia and can be accessed online free of charge (http://samaj.revues.org/).