Sylvain Lévi

Sylvain Lévi
Born March 28, 1863
Paris, France
Died October 30, 1935 (aged 72)
Paris, France
Fields Sanskrit language, literature, Buddhism
Institutions Collège de France
Notable students Paul Demiéville, Paul Pelliot

Sylvain Lévi (March 28, 1863 – October 30, 1935) was an orientalist and indologist.[1] Born in Paris on March 28, 1863, his book Théâtre Indien is an important work on the subject. Lévi also conducted some of the earliest analysis of Tokharian fragments discovered in Western China.

He was also an early opponent of the traditionalist author René Guénon, citing the latter's uncritical belief in a "Perennial philosophy", that is, a primal truth revealed directly to primitive humanity, based on an extreme reductionist view of Hinduism, which was the subject of Guénon's first book, L'Introduction générale a l'étude des doctrines hindoues, in fact a thesis delivered to Lévi at the Sorbonne, and rejected.

Works

References

  1. "Sylvain Levi (French orientalist)". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
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