Bruno Dagens is emeritus Professor of the Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3. He is an eminent historian of art and religions, Sanskritist and archaeologist covering a wide area of research, including Afghanistan, South-India and East-Asia, especially Cambodia and Thailand. For his archaeological research he visited Surkh-Kotal in Afghanistan, was posted in Cambodia in the Centre of the École Française d’Extrême Orient and spent many years in the French Institute of Pondicherry, India. He also held academic posts in the Université Catholique de Louvain.