Alain Daniélou (1907-1994), alias Shiva Sharan (Shiva’s protégé), was a noted Indologist and musicologist.
Taught to sing and play the piano as a child, he became interested very early on in both European and foreign forms of music.
In 1932, he travelled to India where he met Rabîndranâth Tagore who made him the director of the musical department of his Shantiniketan School. During his stay, he studied the Veena lute, Hindi and Sanskrit and consequently became deputy director of the Hindu University of Varanasi’s music college.
IHe then became an initiate of Shaivite Hinduism under the guidance of the sannyasin Swami Karpatri and also frequented the Nehru family. In 1954, he moved to Madras and became the director of the Adyar Library of Sanskrit Manuscripts and Works. Two years later, he unified the Pondicherry French Institute of Indology and the French School of the Far East.
He returned to Europe in 1960 and founded both the Berlin and Venice Institutes of Comparative Music in 1969.
He is the author of "Mythes et Dieux de l'Inde, Le polythéisme hindou" (Myths and Gods of India, Hindu Polytheism), "Les quatre sens de la vie" (The Four Directions of Life), "Musique de l’Inde du nord" (The Music of Northern India), "Le temple hindou" (The Hindu Temple) and other reference works.
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