Nalini Balbir (born 1955) is a French

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

who lives in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. She is a scholar of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Prakrit Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...

, Pali,

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. She was previously a student of Indologist Colette Caillat. She is known for her work on the publication of the Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

published by the Institute of Jainology.

Biography

Nalini Balbir was born of a French mother and an Indian father. She started her career as a teacher of French, Latin and Greek in secondary schools (1977 to 1980), before completing her PhD in Indian Studies (Études indiennes) with the edition and annotated translation of the ''Danastaka-katha'', a book of Jain narratives in Sanskrit, which was published in 1982. Between 1982-1988 she was a Research scholar in the

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, where she completed her DLitt in Indian Studies with a magisterial work on the complex Jaina ''Avasyaka'' literature which was published in 1993 under the title ''Avasyaka Studien''. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to classical and modern Indian philology she became Professor of Indian Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle (University of New Sorbonne) in 1988. Dr Balbir is currently Professor for Indian Studies (Études Indiennes) at the Sorbonne Nouvelle (University of Paris-3), and since the year 2000 also Directeur d'Études for Middle-Indian Philology at the

École Pratique des Hautes Études École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

in Paris (Section des Sciences historiques et philologiques). As a trained philologist, her main areas of research are Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Theravada Buddhism, Jainism, and Hindi language and literature of the 20th century. She is also a member of Pali text society in London and editor since 1983 of ''Bulletin d'Études Indiennes'', an Indology Journal. p. 208

Publications

*Balbir, N. (1983). ''Prakrit versions of a Pan-Indian tale; the Monkey and the Tailor-bird, and their use in Jaina Books of discipline.'' OCLC Number: 469255352 *Balbir, N. (1984). "Normalizing trends in Jaina narrative literature." ''Indologica Taurinensia'' 12 (1984): 25-38. OCLC Number: 469255335 *Balbir, N., Oberlies, T., & Leumann, E. (1993). ''Āvaśyaka-Studien. Alt- und neu-indische Studien,'' 45, 1-2. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. , OCLC Number: 30675632 *Renou, L., Balbir, N., & Pinault, G.-J. (1997). . Védique et sanskrit - 2. Tradition grammaticale Choix d'études indiennes / Louis Renou. Réunis par Nalini Balbir et Georges-Jean Pinault, Tome 1. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient. OCLC Number: 246231389 *British Library (London), & Balbir, N. (2006). ''Catalogue of the Jain manuscripts of the British Library 1 Vol. 1 Introduction, bibliography, appendices, indexes, plates.'' , OCLC Number: 263433372 *Caillat, C., & Balbir, N. (2008). ''Jaina Studies. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference.'' Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. , OCLC Number: 470840899 *Balbir, N., & Pinault, G.-J. (2009). ''Penser, dire et représenter l'animal dans le monde Indien.'' Paris: Champion. , OCLC Number: 406150083 * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balbir, Nalini 1955 births Academic staff of the University of Paris Scholars of Jainism French Sanskrit scholars French Indologists French people of Indian descent Living people People from Gironde Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 alumni Linguists of Pali Linguists of Indo-Aryan languages