Françoise Mallison (born in Lyon, 1940) is a French Indologist specialising in the history and religious traditions of Gujarat.
[1] Returning to France, she lectured at the École pratique des hautes études, and then supervised a research programme on the history and philology of Western India in the Middle Ages at the EFEO.
She has rediscovered and analyzed texts from the last thousand years, ranging from hymns such as the Prabhatiyam to the Ginans of the Ismailis, and local interpretations of Sanskrit epics such as the Ramayana.
She claimed that his doctrines, based on Krishna-worship – already well-established in Gujarat – were especially popular among the merchant bania caste, because he taught that the pursuit of material gain was compatible with bhakti.
[7] Mallison reconstructed the history of the Braj Language School in Bhuj, Gujarat, a cultural institution that educated poets and professional writers from 1749 to 1948.