The French Institute of Pondicherry is a multidisciplinary research, publication, and advanced educational center whose scope embraces Indian civilization, history and society, environment and development in South and South-East Asia. Funded and supervised by the Division of Social Sciences and Archaeology of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the institute houses special libraries, manuscript collections, a photo library, herbarium, pollen library and databases that assist researchers in Sanskrit studies, history of religions, contemporary Tamil culture and production of an historical atlas of South India. The Web site includes lists of publications (maps and books) and recent library acquisitions.