This presentation provides an overview of two research projects, with a focus on their digital humanities aspects and the available online outputs. TST (Texts Surrounding Texts) is an ANR-DFG funded project focussing on the study of the paratexts of Tamil manuscripts, based on catalogue descriptions of manuscripts kept in the BnF in Paris and in the SUB in Hamburg. DHARMA (The Domestication of Hindu Asceticism and the Religious Making of South and Southeast Asia) is an ERC-funded project focussing on the institutionalisation of Hinduism, over a large area covering South and Southeast Asia between the 6th and the 13th c., based notably on epigraphical sources. Both projects rely on OA TEI-XML encoding of Tamil manuscripts descriptions and of Tamil inscriptions editions, which are made available, as databases, on online dedicated websites with visual documentation and search facilities. New research tools and new research perspectives enabled by digital humanities for the study of Tamil inscriptions and manuscripts as historical sources will be highlighted.