Biography
Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish
b. Aug. 22, 1877, Colombo, Ceylon
d. Sept. 9, 1947, Needham, Mass., U.S.
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Pioneer historian of Indian art and foremost interpreter of Indian culture
to the West. He was concerned with the meaning of a work of art within a
traditional culture and with examining the religious and philosophical
beliefs that determine the origin and evolution of a particular artistic
style. A careful scholar, he also established an art historical framework
for the study of the development of Indian art.
Of
mixed Ceylonese and British parentage, he was educated at Wycliffe College
and the University of London, where he earned a doctorate in geology. He
was named director of mineral surveys for Ceylon in 1903 but soon
transferred his interests to the arts of Ceylon and India. In 1910-11
Coomaraswamy was placed in charge of the art section of the great United
Provinces Exhibition in Allahabad, India. Six years later, when the
Dennison W. Ross Collection was donated to the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, he was appointed the museum's fellow for
research in Indian, Persian, and Muslim art, a post that he held until his
death. He enhanced the museum's Indian collections but was primarily
concerned with scholarship and contributed extensively to learned journals
throughout the world.
His
publications ranged over Indian music, dance, and Vedic literature and
philosophy, as well as art. He also contributed to Islamic and Far Eastern
studies. Coomaraswamy's definitive Catalogue of the Indian Collections
in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston was published in five volumes
during 1923-30; the History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927)
became the standard text in the field. The Transformation of Nature in
Art (1934) and Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought (1946)
are collections of essays expressing his views on the relationship of art
to life, traditional art, and the ideological parallels between the arts
of the East and the pre-Renaissance West.
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Content
Books and Reviews
The Bugbear of Literacy
Buddha
and the Gospel of Buddhism
The
Door in the Sky
Figures
of Speech or Figures of Thought
The
Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha
Myths
of the Hindus and Buddhists
Yaksas:
Essays on Water Cosmology
Audio and Video
News and Articles
Discussion Items
Poetry and Thoughts
Speaker Events and Information
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