Andre Padoux

André Padoux (1920–2017) was a French Indologist, professor at the CNRS and a leading academic authority on Tantra and on Kashmirian Saivism. His books, including the magisterial Tantric Mantra and works on the Vac, decipher the mantric traditions and the philosophy of sound within the Hindu tantras with philological precision.

Padoux spent a lifetime instructing European and Indian students in the grammatical and philosophical classics of Hindu Tantra. He was associated with the tradition of French Indology founded by Silburn, and his scholarship became the standard reference for any serious study of tantric theory and practice.