The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher: World Wisdom, Inc
ISBN: 9780941532464
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was engaged in the world not only as a scholarly expositor of traditional culture and philosophy, but also as a radical critic of contemporary life.

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher: World Wisdom, Inc
ISBN: 9780941532464
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was engaged in the world not only as a scholarly expositor of traditional culture and philosophy, but also as a radical critic of contemporary life.

Introduction to Indian Art

Introduction to Indian Art PDF Author: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art

Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art PDF Author: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1787208486
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
The late Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, curator of Indian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, uniquely combined art historian, philosopher, orientalist, linguist, and expositor in his person. His knowledge of the arts and handcrafts of the Orient was unexcelled and his numerous monographs on Oriental art either established or revolutionized entire fields. He was also a great Orientalist, with an almost unmatched understanding of traditional culture. He covered the philosophic and religious experience of the entire premodern world, east and west, and for him primitive, medieval European, and classical Indian experiences of truth and art were only different dialects in a common language. Finally, Coomaraswamy was a provocative writer, whose erudition was expressed in a delightful, aphoristic style. The nine essays in this book are among his most stimulating. They discuss such matters as the true function of aesthetics in art, the importance of symbolism, and the importance of intellectual and philosophical background to the artist; they analyze the role of traditional culture in enriching art; they demonstrate that abstract art and primitive art, despite superficial resemblances, are completely divergent; and they deal with the common philosophy which pervades all great art, the nature of medieval art, folklore and modern art, the beauty inherent in mathematics, and the union of traditional symbolism and individual portraiture in premodern cultures.

Hinduism and Buddhism

Hinduism and Buddhism PDF Author: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497675847
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
The renowned Sri Lankan metaphysician presents his enlightening insight into the essential kinship between Hinduism and Buddhism. In this probing work, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy examines the foundational myths and spiritual underpinnings of Hinduism and Buddhism. Discarding the Western narrative of philosophical divergence, Coomaraswamy instead explores the essential unity between these two major religions. In his perspective, one is merely an outgrowth of the other. Dividing the book into two parts, Coomaraswamy begins each section with an overview of each religion’s foundational myths. The section on Hinduism then covers concepts such as karma, maya, reincarnation, sacrifice, and caste. In the section on Buddhism, he demonstrates that Buddha never intended to start a new religion, but to deepen the spiritual understanding of the existing one.

History of Indian and Indonesian Art

History of Indian and Indonesian Art PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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The Dance of Śiva

The Dance of Śiva PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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What Is Civilization?

What Is Civilization? PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher: SteinerBooks
ISBN: 1584202009
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
In his foreword, Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes: "Over forty years have passed since the death of Ananda Coomaraswamy; yet his writings remain as pertinent today as when he wrote them, and his voice echoes in the ears of present-day seekers of truth and lovers of traditional art as it did a generation ago. In contrast to most scholarly works which become outdated and current philosophical opuses which become stale, Coomaraswamy's works possess a timeliness that flows from their being rooted in the eternal present. It is therefore with joy that one can welcome a new collection of essays of this formidable metaphysician and scholar."

Selected Letters of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Selected Letters of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art critics
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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The Door in the Sky

The Door in the Sky PDF Author: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691219338
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was a pioneer in Indian art history and in the cultural confrontation of East and West. A scholar in the tradition of the great Indian grammarians and philosophers, an art historian convinced that the ultimate value of art transcends history, and a social thinker influenced by William Morris, Coomaraswamy was a unique figure whose works provide virtually a complete education in themselves. Finding a universal tradition in past cultures ranging from the Hellenic and Christian to the Indian, Islamic, and Chinese, he collated his ideas and symbols of ancient wisdom into the sometimes complex, always rewarding pattern of essays. The Door in the Sky is a collection of the author's writings on myth drawn from his Metaphysics and Traditional Art and Symbolism, both originally published in Bollingen Series. These essays were written while Coomaraswamy was curator in the department of Asiatic Art of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where he built the first large collection of Indian art in the United States.

Yakṣas

Yakṣas PDF Author: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788121502306
Category : Mythology, Indic
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Illustrations: 73 B/w Illustrations Description: Particular significance attaches to Yaksas in Indian mythology, religion and art. Their almost universal presence in the earlier Indian religions, Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina, wherein they are invested with peculiar traits and powers, indicates their importance. Ananda Coomaraswamy's Yaksas is an attempt at bringing together the mass of information from literary and monumental sources about Yaksas and Yaksis, their origin, and development from the conceptual, mythological and iconographical points of view. Coomaraswamy has shown how this non- and pre-Aryan animistic concept originated and, in the historical times, dovetailed with the Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina religious systems to the extent that the concept of Yaksattva got closely bound up with the idea of reincarnation. In the preparation of this monograph, Coomaraswamy has extensively drawn upon the sectarian and semi-secular literature and has shown unmistakable evidences of the Yaksas' once honourable status, their benevolence toward men and the affection felt by men toward them. Coomaraswamy begins by tracing the origin of the word yaksa which is first found in Jaiminiya Brahmana, where it means nothing more than 'a wondrous thing.' In course of time Yaksas and Yaksis are often mentioned and their names are found in the Epics, Buddhist and Jaina works and even in sculpture. In Jaina books Yakkhas are often called Devas, where, as Sasana Devatas they are usually guardian angels. In Buddhist works they are sometimes represented as teachers of good morals and as guardian spirits. Of equal importance are the Yaksas and Yaksis in early Indian art and in the early examples (Bharhut, Sanci, Gandhara, etc.) they are frequently represented as Atlantes, supporters of buildings and superstructures. The early iconography of Yaksas, again, seems to have formed the foundation of later Hindu and Buddhist iconography. Coomaraswamy has traced a kind of Bhakti cult centering round the worship of Yaksas on the basis of the Yaksa caityas, the offerings to the Yaksas and has tried to show that the facts of Yaksa worship correspond almost exactly with those of the other Bhakti religions. Coming as it does from the pen of Ananda Coomaraswamy, this brilliant monograph is the acme of scholarship and brilliance and provides a mass of well-documented information. The work is divided into two parts, an Appendix giving Tale of a Yaksa found in the Divyavadana, alongwith 73 plates.