Charles Malamoud (born in 1929 in Moldavia) is a French religious historian, orientalist and Indianist. Arrived in France in 1937, he studied Classics and Russian at the Sorbonne from 1951 to 1954. He trained in Sanskrit and Indian Studies at the Sorbonne and at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE). From 1964 he regularly visited India. Member of the Linguistic Society of Paris and of the Asian Society since 1956 as well as of the Center for Indian Studies almost since its foundation, he defended his thesis in 1979 at the University of the Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3. He is director honorary studies of religions of India at EPHE.