Louis Étienne Joseph Marie de La Vallée-Poussin (1 January 1869 – 18 February 1938) was a Belgian Indologist and scholar of

Buddhist Studies Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the nature of the Bud ...

Biography

La Vallée-Poussin was born in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, where he received his early education. He studied at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

from 1884 to 1888, receiving his doctorate at the age of nineteen. He studied

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 ...

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

, and

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

under Charles de Harlez and Philippe Colinet from 1888 to 1890 at the University of Louvain, receiving a ''docteur en langues orientales'' in July 1891. Moving to Paris, he began his studies at the Sorbonne that same year under Victor Henri and Sylvain Lévi. During this time (1891–1892), he also occupied the chair of Sanskrit at the University of Liège. He continued his study of Avestan and the Zoroastrian Gathas under Hendrik Kern at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

, where he also took up the study of Chinese and Tibetan. In 1893, he attained a professorship at the University of Ghent teaching comparative grammar of Greek and Latin, a position which he held until his retirement in 1929. Louis de La Vallée-Poussin died on February 18, 1938, in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

at the age of 69.

Musila et Nārada

In 1937 La Vallée-Poussin published ''Musila et Nārada'', an influential study on two ways of attaining nirvana, exemplified by the monks Musila and Nārada.

Major works

* ''Nirvana'' * ''La Morale bouddhique'' * ''Documents d'Abhidharma : La controverse du temps, des dieux, les quatre, les trois vérités'' * ''L’Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu.'' 6 vols. Paris: 1923–31. * ''Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi: La Siddhi de Hiuan-Tsang'', (1928–1929) * ''L'Inde aux temps des mauryas et des Barbares, Grecs, Scythes, Parthes et Yue-Tchi'' * ''Dynasties et histoire de l'Inde depuis Kanişka jusqu'aux invasions musulmanes (1935)'' * ''Bouddhisme. Opinions sur l'histoire de la dogmatique'' * ''Indo-européens et indo-iraniens. L'Inde jusque vers 300 avant J.-C'', (1924)

References

Sources

* *

External links

*
The way to Nirvana : six lectures on ancient Buddhism as a discipline of salvation
on archive.org
Nécrologie : Louis de La Vallée-Poussin.
''Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient'', année 1938, volume 38, pp. 479–483 {{DEFAULTSORT:La Vallee-Poussin, Louis De Belgian Indologists 1869 births 1938 deaths Pali University of Liège alumni Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Buddhist studies scholars Translators from Sanskrit Academic staff of the University of Liège Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences