93 - [INDIAN STUDIES - MANUSCRIPT].

[INDIAN STUDIES - MANUSCRIPT]. “Bagavadam.” A late 18th-century manuscript in one folio volume (260 x 370 mm), in a soft blue cardboard binding of the period. Autograph manuscript of 172 pp. of the work translated from Sanskrit into French based on a Tamil version by Maridas POULLÉ, and published by Charles Thomas Dominique FOUCHER D’OBSONVILLE under the title *Bagavadam, or Divine Doctrine*; a canonical Indian work on the Supreme Being, the gods, the giants, and humankind (Paris, 1788). Maridas Poullé (1721–1796), a pandit in Pondicherry, a linguist, and a pioneer of Indological studies, completed the translation of the Bhagavata Purana—a religious and philosophical work—in 1769, which was published by Foucher d’Obsonville under the title *Bagavadam*. THIS MANUSCRIPT IS LIKELY THAT OF MARIDAS POULLÉ, AS IT WAS REVISED AND EXTENSIVELY ANNOTATED BY FOUCHER D’OBSONVILLE IN PREPARATION FOR PUBLICATION. Charles Thomas Dominique Foucher d’Obsonville (Montargis, 1734–Paris, 1802), an officer from Poitou, was sent to India on three separate occasions for various missions, during which he engaged in naturalistic observations that were used by Buffon and which he published in his own work entitled *Philosophical Essays on the Habits of Various Foreign Animals* (Paris, 1783). He also wrote several unpublished works on Indian customs. • INDIA see also BIDPAY.