Contact : arlo.griffiths@efeo.net
In DHARMA, Arlo Griffiths is in charge of and contributes to research work in task force C (Southeast Asian Epigraphy), but also makes research contributions to task force B (in the fields of Andhra, Bengal and Arakan epigraphy), and to task force D (for Old Javanese philology). Beyond these research activities, as the project’s principal investigator at the EFEO, he is responsible for management of the funding disbursed to the EFEO. This funding is used for activities of all task forces, and for the excavations being undertaken in Indonesia by Véronique Degroot and in Cambodia by Dominique Soutif, with intensive involvement of the EFEO Centers at Jakarta, Pondicherry and Siem Reap.
Having been trained in Indology (with a focus on Sanskrit) at the University of Leiden and at Harvard, Arlo Griffiths began his academic career with a doctoral fellowship from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) that allowed him to pursue research in Vedic philology. His research focused on the Paippalāda tradition of the Atharvaveda, still alive in Orissa (India) to this day. In the field, he learned the (Indo-Aryan) Oriya language, and started being interested in non-brahmanical traditions. In the margin of his doctoral research, he was able to do some work in the domain of descriptive linguistics of the tribal languages of the region, particularly those belonging to the so-called ‘Munda’ branch of the Austroasiatic family. While still remaining active as Indologist with a specialty in Vedic studies, the focus of his research has gradually shifted to Southeast Asia, first and foremost the epigraphical documents in Sanskrit and in vernacular languages, both Austroasiatic and Austronesian (Cham, Khmer, Malay, Javanese).
Immediately after obtaining the doctorate at Leiden University in 2004, Arlo Griffiths was appointed lecturer in Indian Religions at the University of Groningen. The next year, in 2005, he returned to Leiden, having been appointed to the Chair of Sanskrit. He joined the EFEO in 2008 and was posted at its branch in Jakarta from January 2009 to December 2014. Since 2015, he is posted in France. Living in Lyon, he is member of the UMR Histoire et Sources des Mondes Antiques, but travels up and own to Paris regularly, to teach at the Maison de l’Asie his weekly seminars that are part of the Asian Studies MA co-taught by EFEO, EPHE and EHESS. He supervises PhD students at the EPHE as member of its École doctorale.
Most of his publications are available in pdf form through https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/arlo-griffiths.
Selected publications
2019 Griffiths, Arlo, Andrew Hardy, and Geoff Wade, eds., Champa: Territories and Networks of a Southeast Asian Kingdom. Études Thématiques. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient.
2018 Griffiths, Arlo, “Four More Gupta-Period Copperplate Grants from Bengal.” Pratna Samiksha: A Journal of Archaeology New Series 9: 15–57.
2018 Griffiths, Arlo, and Shilpa Sumant, Domestic Rituals of the Atharvaveda in the Paippalāda Tradition of Orissa: Śrīdhara’s Vivāhādikarmapañjikā. Volume I: Book One, Part One. General Prescriptions. Collection Indologie 135. Pondichéry: Institut français de Pondichéry; École française d’Extrême-Orient.
2017 – Griffiths, Arlo, and Vincent Tournier, eds. http://hisoma.huma-num.fr/exist/apps/EIAD/index2.html. Early Inscriptions of Āndhradeśa, an online publication under the aegis of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (Paris) produced in collaboration with the research centre Histoire et Sources des Mondes Antiques (Lyons).
2017 Griffiths, Arlo, Bob Hudson, Marc Miyake, and Julian K. Wheatley, “Studies in Pyu Epigraphy, I: State of the Field, Edition and Analysis of the Kan Wet Khaung Mound Inscription, and Inventory of the Corpus.” Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 103: 43–205.
2016 Griffiths, Arlo, and Amandine Lepoutre, “Études du corpus des inscriptions du Campā, VIII. Les inscriptions des piédroits des temples de Po Klaong Girai (C. 8-11), de Linh Thái (C. 109-110) et de Yang Prong (C. 116).” Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient 102: 195–296.
2015 Griffiths, Arlo, “Three More Sanskrit Inscriptions of Arakan: New Perspectives on Its Name, Dynastic History and Buddhist Culture in the First Millennium.” Journal of Burma Studies 19 (2): 281–340.
2014 Griffiths, Arlo, “Inscriptions of Sumatra, III: The Padang Lawas Corpus Studied along with Inscriptions from Sorik Merapi (North Sumatra) and from Muara Takus (Riau).” In History of Padang Lawas, North Sumatra, II: Societies of Padang Lawas (Mid-Ninth – Thirteenth Century CE), edited by Daniel Perret, 211–53. Cahier d’Archipel 43. Paris: Association Archipel.
