Borayin Larios

scholar, Writer, and Director in Pondicherry, India

Read my book

I'm a scholar of the ancient and living traditions of India. My main methodological approach is interdisciplinary. I am an advocate for a combined approach of cultural anthropology, religious studies, and historical philology.
In 2013, I obtained a doctorate in classical Indology from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and I am currently the Head of the Indology Department at the French Institute of Pondicherry and also a researcher at the EFEO, Pondicherry. From 2018 to 2023, I was a faculty member at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria.

My first book entitled "Embodying the Vedas: Traditional Vedic Schools of Contemporary Maharashtra" (2017) is available in open access from De Gruyter as well as on Academia.edu. I have also published several articles on the contemporary Vedic traditions. Currently, my main research interests revolve around popular and everyday Hinduism expressed at wayside shrines in Indian cities. An open access special volume was published recently in the journal SAMAJ (https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4523)

I am also passionate about photography (links below), visual arts, traveling and vegan/vegetarian cooking.

I am happily married to Anurādhā Claudia de Alba and a father to two wonderful children named Kabīr and Kāśī Devī.

  • Work
    • IFP / EFEO
  • Education
    • University of Heidelberg, Germany
    • University of Fribourg, Switzerland